Released 22 sex slaves in Almeria and arrested their five captors | Society
Agents of the National Police have dismantled in Vícar (Almería) an organization composed of three men and two women dedicated to the sexual exploitation. They caught the victims in different locations in Spain, offering them false employment contracts, to force them to subsequently practice prostitution. Within the framework of the so-called Operation Cacique 22 Colombian, Honduran, Nigerian and Guinean women, who were being sexually exploited by the members of this group, have been released.
The investigation began ten days ago when agents of the Alien Police Unit (UCRIF) of the Provincial Police Station of Almería received a complaint for an alleged crime of trafficking in human beings for the purpose of sexual exploitation. During several days the police investigated the data provided by the protected witness.
In her complaint, she told how she was apprehended in Barcelona by a member of the organization while she was posting posters demanding a job. Taking advantage of her need and vulnerability, she was offered a job in the hospitality sector and a home and transported by vehicle to the town of Vícar in Almería.
Four other women told the police similar facts, leaving in evidence the hierarchy between their captors and the distribution of tasks among the different members of the criminal organization and perfectly differentiated the figures of the collector, the transporter, and the sexual exploiters.
Endangered with voodoo rites
The investigations led them to a farmhouse in the aforementioned town of Almeria. There, as the court clerk could verify during the search, there were 22 women forced into prostitution. Those now detained were coerced to carry out sexual practices under payment of 10 euros for 10 minutes of relationship. Given the refusal of any of them, they did not hesitate to use voodoo or black magic to achieve their purpose, intimidating their victims. If they did not reach their goal, they were fined up to 50 euros for noncompliance, the investigators say.
The women remained in a state of kidnapping because the same place where they were forced to prostitute themselves is where they lived, with the payment of the corresponding rent. Every night they locked them in their rooms until the next day, when one of their captors removed the padlock from the lock.
The five detainees are accused of the crimes of belonging to a criminal gang, trafficking in human beings for the purpose of sexual exploitation, against the rights of workers and for crimes related to prostitution. They have been placed at the disposal of the Juzgado de Instrucción de Guardia de Almería, who has decreed the entry into prison of four of them.
This operation is part of the National Police Plan against the Trafficking of Human Beings for the Purpose of Sexual Exploitation. The National Police has the telephone line 900 10 50 90 and the email [email protected], to facilitate citizen collaboration and the report, anonymous and confidential, of this type of crime. The calls are not reflected in the telephone bill.
Linking agents
The National Police Force has 106 agents trained as social partners against trafficking in human beings. The social partner is a collaboration link with organizations and entities with proven experience in victim assistance.
These experts are the permanent point of contact with NGOs to promote the always difficult collaboration of victims of trafficking in human beings, usually gripped by fear. The links function as a guarantor in the mutual exchange of information, trends, statistics and to promote the coordination protocols that are necessary for the assistance to the victims and the specialized police support in the matter.
