The National Police has released 23 victims of sexual exploitation who were deceived with a future job in beauty salons. The agents have arrested eight people in various provinces of Spain, and two of them have already been placed in provisional prison.
The police investigation has uncovered a criminal network that allegedly profited from the sexual exploitation of its victims. They deceived them by saying that they would have another type of job or under very different conditions. One of the women has a judicially recognized intellectual disability.
Those involved were those who contacted clients through websites and agreed on all sexual services. The victims could not reject them and were forced to pay the organization even more money as a payment for carrying out these procedures.
The organization recruited its victims through people they knew, family members or compatriots, either in their country of origin or while in Spain in an irregular situation. In the latter case, the condition of prostitution was imposed on them in order to pay debts that had originated in their country. One of the victims had a recognized intellectual disability as the protection system called conservatorship was judicially ordered.
The victims captured at their origin, mainly Colombia but also from other Latin American countries, entered Spain through the Madrid or Barcelona airports. Those involved deceived them by offering them a different job, in the beauty salon or elderly care sector, or under very different conditions to those they were finally forced to submit to.
The criminal network forced its victims into prostitution under threats, frequently moving them from one province to another, which made it difficult to detect their criminal activity. They controlled them with video surveillance cameras installed in the apartments where they were exploited. The women had to pay the members of the organization 50% of each sexual service. In addition, they had to write down each of these services in notebooks.
The victims had to pay an amount of money for these efforts, which was charged apart from half of the profits generated by their exploitation. Women could not refuse any type of sexual service and were forced to work on pallets, without a bed base or mattress and even if they felt unwell.
The investigation has revealed that the head of the network acquired multiple real estate properties in several provinces of Spain, and even in Colombia, with the money obtained from the exploitation and sale of narcotic substances.
The investigation has culminated in the release of 23 victims of sexual exploitation in the cities of Úbeda (Jaén), Alicante, Guadalajara, Alcalá de Henares (Madrid), Lugo and Ciudad Real. Eight people have been arrested in the towns of Úbeda (2), Alcoy (2), Guadalajara (2), Lugo (1) and Ciudad Real (1), for the crimes of human trafficking for sexual exploitation. related to prostitution, against workers’ rights, money laundering, against public health and membership in a criminal organization.
Mobile phones, more than 5,000 euros in cash, narcotic substances such as cocaine and “tusi” have been seized, as well as documentation related to the investigation.
