Alleged Mass and Cass pimp indicted
‘Ason the Pimp’ facing charges for trafficking, distribution, more
A man the feds say calls himself “Ason the Pimp” has been indicted on trafficking women and dealing cocaine out of a tent on Mass and Cass — all while on probation for earlier felony convictions.
Jonathan Vaughan, 35, who the feds say sports the words “Pimp or Die” in a tattoo across his chest, faces charges of three counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion; two counts of transportation of an individual for purposes of prostitution and one count of possession with intent to distribute cocaine. He’s scheduled to make his initial appearance in federal court in Boston on Monday.
Court documents state that Vaughan allegedly likes to post videos where he raps about his exploits with lyrics a bit too blue to quote fully in this newspaper, like this redacted sample: “(Expletive) are sending my (derogatory word for women) hundreds of dollars in the morning.”
“Sex trafficking is a heinous crime that inflicts immeasurable pain and trauma on victims and communities,” said U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins. “Vaughan allegedly preyed on and exploited multiple vulnerable victims, by coercion and by force, to engage in sex acts for his own financial benefit. He profited off of people’s pain.”
The feds say that Vaughan “appears to be a career offender,” with a rap sheet of 22 adult criminal arraignments. That includes a February 2020 conviction on assault and battery and various firearm charges. He was out on probation in that case while allegedly committing these current offenses.
Investigators from multiple local and federal agencies allege that Vaughan has been trafficking women since at least 2019, primarily in Boston and Cape Cod.
The feds say that Vaughan maintained a tent in the area of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard in Boston — the notorious “Methadone Mile” open-air drug market that the Herald reported recently was seeing an uptick in activity — where women he recruited to work as prostitutes could bring back johns, and he would take his cut of the profits.
Vaughan allegedly started recruiting women by sending messages to victims over Facebook since as far back as 2015, the charging doc states, promising them hard drugs like heroin, fentanyl and crack cocaine and the promises of a better life like “financial stability” and shelter in the form of a Mass and Cass tent or a hotel room.
The feds say that he also personally recruited women in the Mass and Cass and Downtown Crossing areas and put them up in hotels throughout greater Boston, out on the Cape and in New York City. From there he’s accused of putting them on the street to work for him and advertised his victims’ services on well-known sex work sites megapersonals.com and adultsearch.com.
When he was arrested on the charges on Oct. 13, investigators allege that he was carrying “approximately fifteen bags of crack cocaine — packaged to be distributed to drug users.”
If convicted of these charges, Vaughan could face a minimum sentence of 15 years in prison for sex trafficking, 10 years for transporting a person for prostitution and 20 years in prison for the intent to distribute cocaine charge.