National Police have rescued four victims of sexual exploitation in Murcia and Benidorm, who were fooled into thinking they were being offered work as models.
Officers arrested seven people, including the two ringleaders of the organised crime group, one of whom has been remanded in custody, according to a spokesperson for the force.
The investigation was launched thanks to a call to the police’s 091 number, which alerted that a woman was being forced to work as a prostitute 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and was being held in an apartment in Murcia city.
Officers’ enquiries discovered a gang specialised in human trafficking and sexual exploitation, which preyed on vulnerable and mostly Colombian women who were going through very difficult personal and financial circumstances in their country of origin.
These women were offered fake jobs as models in Spain, or in some cases work as prostitutes with very beneficial conditions that ultimately were not fulfilled.
The gang gave the women everything they needed to travel to this country, from plane tickets to instructions how to cross the border.
They were collected on arrival and taken to one of the apartments controlled by the gang, where they were forced to live and prostitute themselves until they had paid off their supposed debt.
Aside from having to be available all the time, they were forced to take drugs and provide services without a condom, they were constantly watched by CCTV cameras and if they wanted to go outside, they had to be accompanied and authorised by their captors.
The gang was led by a couple who were in charge of everything from enticing the victims and financing the travel, to buying the two flats and imposing the conditions for the women’s exploitation.
A group of accomplices obeyed their orders to carry out other tasks, such as the ‘madam’ in charge of the flats and the driver who took the women from one flat to the other.
Officers also established that the gang sold drugs to clients, including cocaine, 2C-B and marijuana, as well as medication for erectile dysfunction.
The police operation searched four residential addresses and the two apartments used as brothels in Murcia and Benidorm, from where they seized €7,970 in cash, 2.4 grams of 2C-B, two cars and a motorbike, various electronic devices and many documents of relevance to the investigation.
The Nationla Police plan against human trafficking includes a telephone line (90 010 50 90) and an email address (trata@policia.es) for the public to leave any information or report crimes anonymously and confidentially.
