Within the framework of the so-called ‘Vagary’ operation, agents of the National Police have arrested 37 people in Malaga for their alleged involvement in the crimes of trafficking in human beings for the purposes of sexual exploitation, related to prostitution, against the Public Treasury. , Social Security and workers’ rights, against public health, document falsification and membership in a criminal organization, as indicated by the National Police in a statement. In the operation, 29 women who were being sexually exploited by a gang whose members subjected them to tight control in hostess clubs have been released.
According to the investigations, the network forced the victims to prostitute themselves in abusive conditions, subjecting them to a very rigorous system of economic sanctions, for alleged breaches of the internal conditions of the clubs, and also forcing them to sell drugs among clients.
The National Police has carried out seven searches in brothels and homes of the main people investigated, in the Malaga towns of Alhaurín de la Torre, Alhaurín el Grande, Coín, Pizarra and Málaga, seizing 261,670 euros in cash, 30 grams of MDMA, 15 grams of cocaine, 114 doses of sexual stimulants, five high-end vehicles and a cryptocurrency wallet worth about 100,000 euros. Bank accounts and properties worth 2,500,000 euros have also been blocked.
The police investigation, carried out by agents assigned to the Ucrif of the Provincial Immigration and Borders Brigade in Malaga, began based on information that pointed to the existence of an organized group that recruited women from different countries, in situations of vulnerability, in order to exploit them professionally and sexually, in hostess clubs located in the Guadalhorce Valley region.
According to the investigations carried out, the victims, who lived in the brothels themselves, were sexually exploited in abusive conditions and were subject to strict discipline within them, having to face financial sanctions for alleged non-compliance with the internal regime measures of the clubs, in many cases related to “unfulfilled” schedules or appointments with clients.
Likewise, those affected were rotated among the organization’s clubs to especially avoid situations of trust between the workers and between them and regular clients.
Those responsible for the organization used a complex corporate network from which they defrauded public coffers of money, in some cases not paying the workers’ Social Security contributions, or, in others, creating fictitious registrations.
Thus, the different companies under investigation would have reached a debt with Social Security that would be around one million euros. The operation ended with the arrest of 37 people for their alleged involvement in the plot, ranging from those in charge of accounting tasks and management of the brothels, to a wide network of collaborators and consorts.
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 crimes, the call not being reflected in the telephone bill.
