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An ex-adjunct chemistry professor at City College was arrested Thursday for smuggling three women from El Salvador into the US and keeping them hidden in his Bronx apartment to sexually abuse them, federal prosecutors said.
Jorge Alberto Ramos, 43, an immigrant originally from El Salvador, coaxed three women to illegally come to the US — promising them a better life and education — and paid thousands of dollars to help “coyotes” smuggle them over the border, the Manhattan federal court indictment against him alleges.
The City College of New York said Ramos last worked at the public university over a decade ago, but did not provide an exact date or circumstances for his departure.
Prosecutors said the former adjunct carried out the sick scheme from 2013 through this year, grooming the women by pretending to care about them and their families and sending them gifts and money.
After luring them to New York, Ramos’ demeanor changed and he became aggressive, forcing the women to stay in his apartment, where he raped them and subjected them to other abuse, the indictment alleges.
Ramos allegedly kept the women captive by threatening he would report them to immigration authorities if they left and by isolating them from other people, according to the charging document.
In 2013 and 2014, Ramos arranged for the first alleged victim to be smuggled into the US by paying a coyote $3,500, the feds claimed.
The woman believed she was in a romantic relationship with him — but Ramos didn’t let her leave his apartment, according to prosecutors.
And when she got a job a month later, he told her he brought her to the US so he “could have sex with [her] whenever he wanted” and then proceeded to rape her twice, the indictment alleges.
In November 2015, he allegedly arranged for a 27-year-old woman to travel from the Central American country through Guatemala and Mexico.
He even shelled out $4,000 so she could be released from US Customs and Border Protection custody and then paid for her plane ticket from Texas to New York, according to the indictment.
When she met him at the airport in New York, she “noticed that [Ramos’] demeanor had changed” specifically, he went from being “caring” to becoming “aggressive and angry,” the indictment alleges.
Once at his apartment, Ramos allegedly told the woman “she had to sexually service him,” and he proceeded to rape her for several weeks until she fled, according to the feds.
His next victim was an 18-year-old woman he paid $6,000 to have smuggled into the US, the indictment alleges.
When she arrived in March 2017, Ramos allegedly groped her and told her he brought her to the US to be “‘his woman’ and for no other reason,” the filing states.
He kept her at his home, where he continued to sexually abuse and rape her for one month before she escaped, according to the indictment.
“As alleged, over the course of a decade, Jorge Alberto Ramos engaged in a scheme to rape, sexually assault, and sexually abuse multiple victims from El Salvador after inducing them to travel to the United States with promises of a better life,” Manhattan US Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement.
“Ramos preyed on vulnerable women and smuggled them to New York so that he could exploit their bodies for his own sexual gratification,” Williams said.
Each of the women was introduced to Ramos through family and friends in El Salvador, the indictment states.
Ramos is charged with inducement to travel to engage in unlawful sexual activity, transportation to engage in unlawful sexual activity, conspiracy to engage in human smuggling, human smuggling and harboring an alien.
He faces decades in prison if convicted on all counts.
Ramos has agreed to be held without bail but is leaving the door open to request bail at a later date. He was slated to appear in Manhattan federal court Thursday.
His lawyer didn’t immediately return a request for comment.
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