Four arrested for sexually exploiting around twenty women in Badalona

BarcelonaIt was 1:00 p.m. when the phone rang at the Sant Adrià de Besòs National Police station. On the other end of the call was a very upset woman. She said she was locked in an apartment in Badalona with a friend. Nervous, she described how a man, armed with a gun, was watching them and, at that moment, was sexually assaulting her friend. The woman hung up, and officers from the National Police and the Badalona Urban Guard immediately went to the apartment. It was August 14th, and this call marked the beginning of a police investigation that has led to the release of 18 women and the arrest of four people who were forcing them into prostitution.

When they arrived at the apartment from which the call had come, the police found not just two women, but many more. The vast majority were in the country illegally. The woman who had called and her friend were taken to the hospital for a medical examination. Their subsequent statements were crucial to the investigation's success: they lived in other parts of Spain and one day received an offer to work in a bar in Barcelona, ​​with a decent salary. They accepted. The person who made them this offer was a woman, who also welcomed them when they arrived in Barcelona. But instead of taking them to a bar, she led them to an apartment in Badalona, ​​where they ended up locked up and forced into prostitution. They slept crammed into small rooms, with bunk beds as high as three stories high.

Constantly under surveillance

The apartment was guarded 24 hours a day by three men. They were armed, and if any woman refused to have sex with them, they would display their weapons to threaten and force them to do so. Furthermore, the criminal gang behind these apartments kept a third of the victims' earnings. The two women who called the police on August 14 were the first of sixteen more women to be freed. However, the perpetrators remained to be caught.

The National Police surveillance was successful, and they identified the woman who was making false job offers. Two security guards at the apartment had photographs of the victims. While following them, they discovered a second apartment where prostitution was also practiced and which belonged to the owners. Everything came to a close on September 16, when the police arrested four people and raided the two apartments they managed.

The detainees are charged with human trafficking for sexual exploitation, coercive prostitution, membership in a criminal organization, illegal possession of weapons, crimes against public health, unlawful detention, and sexual assault. More than 42,000 euros in cash, two safes, an axe, two baseball bats, nearly 35 grams of drugs, documents, and several electronic devices were seized from the apartments.