A network accused of sexually exploiting Nigerian women in Lanzarote, Madrid, and Vitoria, which the Provincial Court of Las Palmas is trying since Tuesday, demanded that one of its victims pay 55,000 euros for a supposed debt she had incurred
This victim, protected witness number 2 in the case, explained on the first day of the trial that she had to take three oaths before leaving her country and eat the raw heart of a chicken, following a voodoo ritual, to commit to paying her debt and not betraying anyone in the organization, lest something bad happen to her family.
The witness explained that she received beatings and was forced into prostitution in Lanzarote, Madrid, and Vitoria, until she was able to flee to Barcelona with another of the organization's victims and report the accused: three women and four men – two of them in absentia – who face nine years in prison, except for the ringleader, the defendant S.O., for whom 11 years are requested, although her lawyers are seeking her acquittal.
According to the victim's account, S.O. was an acquaintance of her aunt and was the one who proposed traveling to Spain in 2015 to work and earn money to care for her son and the rest of her family in Nigeria.A man named Harris found him the plane ticket in Nigeria and gave him some money to get to Lanzarote, his final destination, after previously going through Madrid, having traveled to Turkey, Greece, and France, the witness stated, adding that S.O. was waiting for him in the Spanish capital and that it was with her that he flew to the Canary Islands.From then on, he recounted, all his movements were controlled by S.O., who took his documentation upon arriving in Lanzarote, where he met the other defendants and where he began to work as a prostitute in the Puerto del Carmen area, in Tías, at the indication of the ringleader.The protected witness has recounted that, when she and another victim were taken to Madrid to work as prostitutes there, S.O. forced her to undress and explored her genitals to see if she had any money, and that there he made her apply for asylum and gave her such a beating that, due to her screams, the police came to the boyfriend's house, where they were staying.
She revealed nothing to the agents and covered the wound out of fear, this victim has recounted, stating that she was later transferred to Vitoria where she worked as a prostitute in a club recommended by another of the accused, one of those currently at large and the partner of S.O.
After a raid on the club, both protected witness number 2 and the other victim who had traveled with her from Lanzarote were transferred back to Madrid, where they managed to escape to Barcelona, although she had to continue paying the organization because S.O. threatened her family, even traveling to Nigeria and assaulting a relative.
His mother reproached him, saying that if anything happened to him it would be her fault, he recounted, and his aunt from Nigeria, S.O.'s acquaintance, sent him a current account number to deposit money into the network.
When questioned by one of the defense attorneys, he stated that in Lanzarote he earned between "150 and 300 euros a day and, sometimes, nothing," that he stopped practicing prostitution when his exploitation ceased, and that his statement to the police was not guided
In this session, a witness testified who was initially accused of these acts and who, in April 2016, took in protected witness number 2 and the other victim who traveled with her to Madrid because the police were looking for them in Arrecife.This witness indicated that S.O.'s partner found the Vitoria club for them and that she was unaware that the alleged ringleader brought girls from Nigeria and that they had to pay her what they earnedWhen questioned by the defense attorneys, he stated that the two girls had no money and denied that they were being controlled
Ten years of police investigation
The 18 police officers who testified as witnesses from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, the Basque Country, Madrid, Valencia, and Barcelona have ratified their actions, and most stated they do not recall the details due to the ten years that have passed since the police investigation began, which concluded in 2016
The trial will continue this Tuesday with the questioning of new witnesses and the defendants, indicated the president of the court, Pilar Parejo, who will rule in her sentence on the request for nullity of the case and the challenge to the telephone wiretaps of the defendants requested by the defense.