The Portuguese Judicial Police and Spanish authorities dismantled an international network of trafficking and sexual exploitation of women. Eight South American women were released in Spain.
following a joint operation between the Judiciary Police, the Guardia Civil and the Catalan Police. The two main suspects, a Spanish couple, were arrested in Boliqueime, in the municipality of Loulé, on the 7th, says SIC correspondent in Faro Conceição Ribeiro.
The network of trafficking and sexual exploitation of women operated from Boliqueime, in the Algarve, where the Spanish couple now detained coordinated the activities. The police operation took place simultaneously in Portugal and Spain, involving the Judiciary Police, the Guardia Civil and the Catalan Police.
In Spain, authorities carried out house searches in Lleida, where a third person was arrested, suspected of being directly responsible for the exploitation of victims in that country. According to the Judicial Police, the leaders of the network operated from Portugal, while recruitment and exploitation took place in several Spanish regions, namely Lérida, Navarra and a province in the Basque Country.
The eight freed women, all of South American origin, had been trafficked through several countries before being found by authorities. One of them even passed through several Asian countries and different Spanish provinces. At this moment, they are all safe, sheltered in a support center for victims of trafficking and sexual exploitation in Spain.
The two detained in Portugal await extradition to Spain, by decision of the Évora Court of Appeal. The third suspect, detained in Lleida, is in pre-trial detention by order of the Barcelona Court.
The Spanish authorities are also investigating possible links between this network and a similar one recently dismantled in Oviedo, also with victims from South America, who were forced into prostitution to pay an alleged debt of six thousand euros for the trip to Europe.
