National Police agents have freed 13 victims of sexual exploitation in Palma, captured through a messaging app, and have arrested 17 people from the criminal network that exploited them.
In a press release, the Police have reported that the investigation, which has had the collaboration of Europol, has dismantled a criminal organization that profited from the sexual exploitation of victims and the sale of sexual stimulants to increase their economic benefits.
Apparently, the framework imposed a regime of slavery on women, forcing them to always be available and monitoring their activity. In addition, they had to perform services as ‘escort’, for which the members of the network transported and controlled them at all times.
According to the Police, the organization recruited victims in their country of origin through compatriots of Chinese nationality.
Those involved offered the women to travel to Europe and allegedly charged them around 15,000 euros in travel expenses that they had to pay to the person who received them in Poland. On occasions, this same person, however, forced them to pay an additional 400 euros per month in social security expenses, given the supposed employment they were offered in that country.
The scheme also provided fraudulent employment contracts with the intention of processing visas for the victims to enter the Schengen area irregularly.
Once in Poland, the organization transferred the victims to Mallorca under the pretext of supposed work, given that they were in a precarious economic situation, telling them that they could earn a lot of money.
When they arrived in Palma, the Police added, the women were taken to dating flats, where they were forced to engage in prostitution to pay the debt incurred. In Spain, the victims remained in an irregular situation, which, together with their lack of knowledge of Spanish, increased their dependence on the organization.
The members of the organization carried out their activity essentially in Palma, where the main person responsible had a network of people involved who spent the night in the apartments to control the services and collect the benefits of sexual exploitation.
The conditions under which the victims had to engage in prostitution were abusive, according to the police, who accuse the organization of treating the victims like slaves, by allegedly forcing them to be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, without being able to reject any client.
The women obtained a maximum of half of the profits obtained from their exploitation and could barely leave the house so as not to raise suspicions among the building’s neighbors. In addition, they had to perform services as ‘escort’, for which members of the organization transported them by vehicle or ordered taxis, controlling the times of these services, permanently monitoring the victims through video surveillance cameras.
According to the investigation, those involved recruited their victims using an instant messaging application and used different contact websites to advertise sexual services, with the members of the organization being the ones who attended to the clients who called to arrange sexual encounters.
The members of the criminal network also profited from the sale of sexual invigorants, so that the services would last longer and bring even greater benefits.
Apparently, these profits were channeled through a hospitality company, owned by the main person responsible for the organization, whose primary activity was to maintain a legal appearance that justified the benefits obtained from the sexual exploitation of the victims.
The investigation has culminated in the release of 13 victims of exploitation in Palma and 17 detainees in Madrid, Palma, Barcelona and Poland (1), as alleged perpetrators of the crimes of trafficking in human beings for sexual exploitation, against the rights of foreign citizens, related to prostitution and membership in a criminal organization.
Seven entries and searches have also been carried out, six in Palma and one in Barcelona, ??in which 15,000 euros in cash, 14 mobile phones and other devices, as well as documentation related to the investigation, have been seized.
This operation is part of the National Police Plan against Trafficking in Human Beings for the Purposes of Sexual Exploitation.
The National Police has the telephone line 900 10 50 90 and the email address trafficking@policia.es to facilitate citizen collaboration and the anonymous and confidential reporting of this type of crime, the call not being reflected in the telephone bill.
