Spanish security forces detain 22 people accused of sexually exploiting 19 women from Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil and Panama in Murcia (southeast), reports the Efe news agency.
The gang operated in two brothels in which it subjected the 19 women who have already been released.
According to the Police, the women lived under permanent threat, in a situation of semi-slavery and their passports were withheld to prevent them from fleeing.
The Unit against Immigration Networks and Documentary Falsities received an anonymous complaint from a victim of this gang who was exploited in a house where prostitution was practiced.
The dismantled organization had paid for these women to travel from their countries of origin, so that they were forced to pay a “debt” by engaging in prostitution, but it never stopped growing.
Once in Spain, they were transferred to a brothel in the Murcian town of Alcantarilla or in the city of Murcia itself, where they were housed and controlled by other women known as “mamis”, who forbade them to go out alone or for half an hour as much.
People also went to these premises with the sole purpose of acquiring narcotics; the main investigated was in charge of preparing the doses, while the ‘mamis’ sold it among the clients of the brothel.
In the police operation, 4,500 euros (4,800 dollars), 30 grams of pink cocaine, known as ‘tusi’, and marijuana, as well as drugs to increase sexual activity and five vehicles have been seized.
The Efe’s report indicates that the Police located four other women who had escaped from one of the brothels, and who stated that a Brazilian woman was the one who took them to Spain under deceptive conditions.
Of those detained, seven have already entered provisional prison and the rest are free with charges. They are accused of crimes related to human trafficking, prostitution, drug trafficking, against the rights of workers, money laundering and belonging to a criminal organization.
Last May, another criminal organization of this type was dismantled in Spain that prostituted Colombian women in Spain and France, who were captured in their country with false offers of work for the care of the elderly, Efe reviewed at the time.
Last week the Consulate of Spain in Caracas published the Current fees for consular procedures at the Embassy of Spain in Venezuela.
