A man accused of sexually abusing 100 children in Tarragona has been arrested in Türkiye.
Youness Naciri was the latest fugitive from the case that judged the largest child pornography network ever dismantled in the State.
BarcelonaTurkish police have arrested Youness En Naciri, a man accused of sexually abusing more than 100 children and participating in the largest child pornography network ever dismantled in the State, according to Turkish media reports reported this Friday by the Efe news agency. in a joint operation by the Mossos d'Esquadra and the Civil Guard. This is what is known as the Trinity case, which uncovered a child abuse and pornography network that recruited minors in vulnerable situations to subject them to sexual abuse and film them in more than 300 shoots, mainly in an apartment in Tortosa (Tarragona), but also in other countries such as Thailand.
It is estimated that the victims of the network were more than one hundred, although only 18 between 11 and 16 years old were identified, some of them under the guardianship of the General Directorate for the Care of Children and Adolescents (DGAIA) of Catalonia.
The macro-network was dismantled almost a decade ago, but in 2019, when the Tarragona Court took over the case, the detainee and two other defendants fled shortly before the trial was to be held. The other two suspects were Jean Luc Aschbacher and Christian Bernard Georges Arson, both French citizens, who were arrested in May 2021.
240 years in prison
Aschbacher, the leader of the network, was sentenced to 240 years in prison for soliciting minors, subjecting them to sexual abuse in which he participated, producing and distributing child pornography, and belonging to a criminal organization. Arson was also sentenced to 19 years in prison for soliciting minors and producing and distributing child pornography, although it was considered proven that he did not abuse the victims as his boss did.
As for Naciri, police had been searching for him since 2019 and he was arrested on Thursday in a hotel room in the city of Bodrum, on Turkey's Mediterranean coast, in an operation supported by an international Interpol arrest warrant. His identity was confirmed with a fingerprint analysis, and authorities later located his passport hidden in his suitcase. Several local media outlets report that Turkish authorities have already contacted Spanish authorities to begin the extradition process for the detainee.