Last week, the Mossos d’Esquadra arrested a 38-year-old man who had tried to capture a woman in France and who deceived her and tried to sell her for the purpose of sexual exploitation in exchange for money. Thanks to the victim’s astute attitude, she was able to discover the author’s plan.
According to the Catalan police, the woman detected a suspicious attitude on the part of the detainee and showed that he did not speak or understand Arabic and that he only spoke French. He had asked her repeatedly if she understood him when he spoke to her in Arabic and once it was clear that she did not speak that language, he made a phone call to an unknown person in Arabic, and the victim was able to know what the author’s real objective was and then he was able to ask for help.
The investigator and the victim had met in a restaurant in France in August. The man used a false name to introduce himself and they began a friendly relationship. They decided to meet again on November 20, but the detainee was very insistent that he wanted to meet the victim in Barcelona, which caught the woman’s attention since they both lived in France.
Finally the victim agreed to see him and they met at noon on November 20 in Marseille and then traveled together to Barcelona. Once in Barcelona they had dinner in a restaurant, that’s when the man insisted on knowing if he understood Arabic. Surprised by such insistence, she pointed out that she only spoke in French.
After dinner and once in the car, the man began a phone call in Arabic with a third person. The victim was able to hear how the investigated person intended to agree to sell him in exchange for a sum of money and that he would deceive him to obtain it. During the conversation he spoke of the woman’s physical features as optimal for sexual exploitation. Frightened by what she had just heard, the victim took advantage of a moment when the man stopped the vehicle to run away and ask the workers at a nearby hotel for help.
The hotel staff immediately alerted 112 and a plainclothes patrol from Ciutat Vella’s Mossos d’Esquadra that was in the area arrested the man on November 20. The arrested man wanted to make the agents believe that the woman was his romantic partner. Two mobile phones were intercepted during the search of the vehicle.
Meanwhile, the hotel receptionist received a call from the woman’s supposed sister saying that she would come pick her up shortly, but the woman confirmed that she did not have any sister.
The Catalan police highlight “the reaction and bravery of the woman in asking for help” as well as “the citizen collaboration in notifying the emergency services”, which allowed the agents to make the arrest and “release a woman who could have been been sexually exploited.” The author was brought to justice before the Barcelona duty court three days after her arrest.