Agents of the National Police have dismantled an organization dedicated to the sexual exploitation of Nigerian women based in Lanzarote and operating in other parts of the country. In total, seven people have been arrested, two in Arrecife, three in Madrid and two in Vitoria (Álava), and five victims have been released, two of them in the capital of the island of Lanzarote.
According to the National Police, the organization had a strong infrastructure that started from Nigeria and reached our country, passing previously through Turkey, Greece and France. The victims were captured in Nigeria where, after being subjected to voodoo rituals, they were brought to Europe, where they had to engage in prostitution to pay off their debts. In the operation, the highest person in charge of the network, also of Nigerian origin, who was in charge of transferring the victims through different provinces to obtain the maximum "benefit" from them, has been arrested.
The investigations began in 2015, when agents detected the existence of a criminal organization of Nigerian origin based in Arrecife and operating in different parts of the national territory, which forced its victims to engage in prostitution "under a climate of threats, beatings and coercion".
The women were captured in Nigeria and the organization was in charge of their transfer through different routes through the African continent to Europe, providing them with the necessary documentation at the origin and instructing them on how they should act at border posts so as not to be detected in police controls. Once in Spain, the victims were transferred to different cities in the national territory such as Madrid, Vitoria or Barcelona to force them to engage in prostitution both on the street and in clubs, under the strict control of the members of the network.
Voodoo rituals, beatings and coercion
Once selected, the victims "were subjected to voodoo rituals to strengthen, through fear, their loyalty to the exploiters", according to the National Police. Through these rituals, the victims pledged not to report their exploiters, not to escape and to hand over all the money they obtained to the members of the organization. To perform the rituals, they extracted blood, cut off pieces of nails from their hands and feet, hair from their head, pubic and armpit hair, even forcing them to eat a raw chicken heart.
The victims incurred a debt of around 55,000 euros, to which had to be added the costs of maintenance, residence and even paying for transport tickets for their exploiters.
Once they arrived at their destination, their documentation was withdrawn and they were forced to engage in prostitution, "with beatings being frequent to which their exploiter subjected them if they did not earn enough or disobeyed their orders." According to the Police, they could only leave the home to engage in prostitution on the street from 8:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. the following day, being continuously monitored by members of the organization who reported everything that happened to the leader.
Arrests and searches
The investigation culminated in the arrest of seven people - two in Arrecife, three in Madrid and two in Vitoria (Álava) - including the highest person in charge of the organization, a woman of Nigerian nationality, responsible for the capture and sexual exploitation of the victims. A total of five victims have been released - two in Arrecife, one in Barcelona, one in Valencia and one in Vitoria (Álava) - and five searches have been carried out in homes in which nearly 2,000 euros were seized, as well as different documentation related to the investigated activity and effects of the voodoo oath.
This operation is part of the National Police Plan against Trafficking in Human Beings for Sexual Exploitation launched in 2013, which led to the creation of the Central Brigade against Trafficking in Human Beings, attached to the General Commissariat of Immigration and Borders of the National Police. With the implementation of this plan, the National Police activated the telephone line 900 10 50 90 and the email trata@policia.es to facilitate citizen collaboration and the anonymous and confidential reporting of this type of crime
