Spanish police free 15 women and men from forced prostitution

Spanish police have rescued 15 women and men from violence by a gang that allegedly forced their victims into prostitution. In a large-scale operation in the autonomous community of Murcia on the Mediterranean coast, a total of 14 suspected members of the gang, including their leader, have been arrested.

The police reported this on Twitter on Wednesday. Most of the victims came from Colombia, police said. Among them were four of the leader’s sisters. Like the other victims, he persuaded her to escape the economic hardship in Colombia and find a lucrative job in Spain. But there they were forced into prostitution to pay for the flight from South America.

The victims were released in apartments and houses in the towns of Molina de Segura and Cabezo de Torres, north of the regional capital of Murcia, radio station Onda Cero reported. A police video showed officers seizing cash and small amounts of drugs. The victims were taken to a minibus and the alleged perpetrators were handcuffed.

Internationally operating criminal gangs usually lure forced prostitutes to Spain with false promises of work. Many are in the country illegally, the perpetrators often take their passports and, in this dependency, force them to buy them to pay for the cost of their flight to Europe.

(yam/sda/dpa)