Suspect in ‘Methadone Mile’ rapes jailed

Swampscott man ordered held on bail in prostitute attacks

A suspected serial rapist who prowled the city’s socalled “Methadone Mile” is accused of raping five women working as prostitutes between the spring of 2017 and 2018 — attacking them all at gunpoint, authorities said.

Joseph Losano, 52, of Swampscott was ordered held on $175,000 bail at his arraignment yesterday on multiple counts of aggravated rape and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and single counts of rape and aggravated kidnapping. He pleaded not guilty.

“These allegations are chilling,” Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said. “They suggest a pattern of assaults on women who might be afraid or reluctant to disclose sexual violence to law enforcement. But no matter who you are, we’re here to help you.”

The Methadone Mile — along Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard — is a gathering place for opioid addicts. Calls for overdoses along that stretch of road near Boston Medical Center accounted for 9 percent of all EMS runs in the city last year for “Narcotic Related Illness” — part of a spike in OD calls in the city the Herald first reported on earlier this week.

“Human trafficking, prostitution, and other forms of exploitation are aided and abetted by drug addiction — and the dealers who profit from it,” Conley told the Herald in a statement last night.

Losano, authorities say, picked up the women “under the guise of seeking sex for a fee.” He then pulled a gun “and forced them to engage in additional sexual conduct against their will,” prosecutors added.

In one alleged attack he locked the doors and windows of his white pickup truck on a woman and raped her, authorities added.

Some of the alleged victims were driven out of the city to Waltham and Quincy, the DA’s office said.

If Losano does post bail, he’s been ordered to stay out of the city. He also must surrender his passport, any firearms, stay away from the alleged victims and be put on home confinement with GPS monitoring.

He is due back in court July 25.