LONG ISLAND, N.Y. (PIX11) — A Long Island motel that shut down last year after the owners were slapped with illegal drugs and sex trafficking charges has been sold for $2 million, according to prosecutors.
The United States announced the sale of the Sayville Motor Lodge, to a company that is partially owned by a principal of a neighboring business with longstanding ties to the community on Tuesday, officials said.
“We allege the owner and employees of the Sayville Motor Lodge looked the other way when pimps trafficked human beings in their hotel,” said United States Attorney Breon Peace. “More egregiously, we allege they took money from those pimps and drug dealers, who beat and abused the women involved in front of them.”
According to court documents, the Sayville Motor Lodge was a drug-involved motel at the center of a sex trafficking conspiracy. The Dadarwalas owned the Sayville Motor Lodge since approximately 1984. They also lived at the hotel while working there, according to court documents.
Ashokbhai Patel, an employee of the motel, also resided at the motel. Together, the Dadarwalas and Patel facilitated the criminal activity at the Sayville Motor Lodge and profited from the alleged prostitution and narcotics activity that took place there.
In November 2022, an indictment was unsealed in federal court in Central Islip charging Timothy Bullen, 36, of Bay Shore, Michael Johnson, 34, of Delaware, Narendarakuma Dadarwala, 77 of Sayville, his wife Shardaben Dadarwala, 70, of Sayville, their son Jigar Dadarwala, 45, of Sayville, and Ashokbhai Patel, 59, of Nebraska, with sex trafficking conspiracy.
“As a result of this sale, the Sayville Motor Lodge is no longer ground zero of an insidious money-maker for prostitution and narcotics trafficking, and a blight on the surrounding community,” stated United States Attorney Bereon Peace. “Instead, the property will be repurposed by its new owner for the benefit of the residents of Long Island.”
Charline Charles is a digital journalist from Brooklyn who has covered local news along with culture and arts in the New York City area since 2019. She joined PIX11 News in 2022. See more of her work here.
