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It was the second time in little over a month that ABC/Vice unit detectives worked both sides of Van Houten and E.18th streets at what continues to be an open-air prostitution market, city Public Safety Director Jerry Speziale said Wednesday.
Paterson police conducted a similar sting in the exact same spot on July 2, arresting 27 johns and 14 hookers, authorities said at the time.
This time, a total of 38 criminal charges were filed and a small amount of drugs -- four bags of marijuana and a dozen heroin folds -- were recovered.
Nearly all of the men busted were from Paterson.
Others, however, were from Cresskill, Paramus, Hasbrouck Heights, North Bergen, Prospect Park, West Milford, Passaic and Nutley, Speziale said.
Most of the accused prostitutes were out-of-towners, including women from Elmwood Park, New Milford, Mahwah, Montville, Absecon (Atlantic County), Vineland (Cumberland County) and Mastic, NY.
Some other arrests were made, mostly for obstructing the operation.
Two men -- identified as Kenneth Mejia, 36, from Clifton and Oscar Revilla, 35, from Paterson -- were both charged with aggravated assault on a police officer.
Revilla had been charged earlier with having eight folds of heroin and four bags of pot, Speziale said.
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