The Attorney General’s Office reported that an operation carried out on Thursday in a Peñarol Viejo whiskey in Montevideo left as balance the detention of six people (four men and two women). Currently the investigation is formalized.
They also reported that the prosecutor for sexual crimes Alicia Ghione requested the indictment of four men and one woman for crimes of aggravated trafficking, aggravated pimping and drug dealing. Some are charged as the author and others as co-authors, they clarified from the Prosecutor’s Office. Imposing preventive detention for 120 days as a precautionary measure while the investigation continues.
At the judicial level, the case has just begun, but the investigation has taken three years, with innumerable wiretaps, footage in the possession of the prosecution, and monitoring of Internet pages and sites. The case refers to the sexual exploitation of women, including some adolescents, drug sales, possession and use of weapons and even a homicide in the whiskey.
Whiskery Operation
According to prosecutor Guione, the owner of the whiskey “had web pages where he offered the sex work of adult women and also of some who were adolescents, who appeared in the photos.” This man, owner of the whiskey bar, left his cell phone and “the women contacted him to go to work,” details the prosecutor.
“He would pick them up in the car, bring them to the place, keep the money, a high percentage of what was produced,” explained Guione. “Between 15 and 20%,” detailed Deputy Prosecutor Brisco.
On the other hand, there was a driver “who contacted the young women and took them to the whiskey bar and there they were sexually exploited.” This man was also charged and went to prison.
In addition, the partner of the owner of the whiskey “kept the accounting,” Brisco explained, and “worked in the narcotics negotiation,” Guione added in a note to the press after the hearing on Friday night.
Drugs were not found at the premises, but elements used for their manufacture and sale were found, such as a precision scale, chemical substances and packaging.
“Uruguay is the only country in Latin America without night raids,” said prosecutor Guione.
As for the victims, who are young women and in some cases adolescents, they found three during the search, who were assisted at the scene by technicians from the Victims and Witnesses Unit of the Attorney General’s Office.
“We have quite a few victims identified in the wiretaps,” Guione said. His assistant added that there are usually “seven to eight women” at night, and explained that the whiskey bar “opens from Tuesday to Sunday, and on weekends it was full.”
