The National Police has dismantled two organizations dedicated to the sexual exploitation of foreign citizens in several brothels in various locations in Lanzarote and Fuerteventura. In total, 12 people have been arrested. Five have been arrested for crimes of promoting illegal immigration and related to prostitution and would be the alleged leaders of the plots and another seven, allegedly prostitutes, have been arrested for violation of the Immigration Law.
According to the National Police, another 30 girls have been identified and five raids and searches have been carried out in brothels on the islands of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura. The main defendants ran several brothels in the towns of Costa Teguise, Corralejo, Puerto del Rosario and La Antigua, mainly supplying themselves with foreign citizens, some of them in an irregular situation.
The National Police explains in a statement that the Provincial Brigade of Immigration and Borders of Las Palmas and the Local Brigades of Immigration of Puerto del Rosario and Arrecife have participated in the 'Lanza-Fuerte' operation, which deployed a global control operation of the different brothels that "proliferate" on the islands of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura.
Following instructions from the Investigating Courts number one of Arrecife and Puerto del Rosario, the Police entered and searched four brothels and the home of one of the defendants.
On the island of Lanzarote, in the town of Costa Teguise, the Police searched the brothel located in the Nautical Shopping Center called 'Club 55', where they arrested the top manager, the Brazilian citizen Rita de Cassia D.N., 37 years old and with no criminal record, as well as her sentimental partner, the Spanish citizen Benedicto C.T., 60 years old and with no criminal record, for alleged crimes of promoting illegal immigration and related to prostitution.
The modus operandi used by the two defendants, according to the Police, would consist of contacting foreign citizens, to whom they would have extended Notarial Invitation Commitments in order for them to cross the Spanish borders under the guise of tourists, when in reality the reason for entering Spain was to engage in prostitution in the brothel run by the aforementioned Brazilian citizen in Costa Teguise.
In the same way, the defendants took charge of the payment of the plane tickets, which they acquired in a travel agency in the town of Puerto del Carmen, later charging the amount of said ticket through the sexual exploitation of the foreign girl; in such a way that until said debt was paid, they could not leave the house.
The detainees, together with the proceedings, were brought before the Investigating Court number One of Arrecife, where, given the difficulty of having the witnesses located pending trial, the so-called early evidence was held with a protected witness who would have been trafficked and subsequently sexually exploited in the 'Club 55', resulting in the provisional imprisonment of the defendant Rita de Cassia.
In Fuerteventura, the Police entered and searched the brothels located in Corralejo, El Castillo (La Antigua) and Puerto del Rosario, all of them run by the citizen from Gran Canaria based in Puerto del Rosario Pedro Carmelo P.M., 41 years old and with a history of crimes against public health, illegal possession of weapons and mistreatment in the family environment; who was arrested together with the Spanish citizen Mercedes P.S., 49 years old and with no criminal record, and the Colombian citizen María Teresa H.S., 37 years old and with no criminal record, for alleged crimes of promoting illegal immigration and related to prostitution.
As could be verified, the aforementioned citizen would be dedicated to touring the different brothels on the island posing as a client, offering the girls the possibility of working for him in the three apartments he had under rent, without even taking into account their irregular situation in Spain.
Once the girls agreed to work in one of Pedro Carmelo's houses, in some cases he forced them to have sexual relations with the aforementioned in order, as he indicated, to "check if they were good at working", reports the National Police, which highlights that the girls were strictly prohibited from leaving the house during working hours. In addition, it reports that prostitutes could only leave the apartment during the hours imposed by Pedro Carmelo and had to live crowded together in bunk beds with the other girls.
It is estimated that the money obtained in the different houses could be around sixty thousand euros per month, which per year would yield an income of 720,000 ?; a figure that contrasts with the fact that the main defendant stated that he did not carry out any work activity, having regularly collected unemployment benefits, while maintaining the rent of four houses, two of them of high standing, with a large terrace and swimming pool.
In addition, once the arrests and the search of the different apartments where prostitution was practiced had taken place, the home of the main defendant Pedro Carmelo was searched, in Puerto del Rosario, where, in addition to documentation of interest, the Police seized almost five thousand euros in cash.
The detainees, together with the proceedings, were brought before the Investigating Court number Two of Puerto del Rosario, agreeing to the internment of the five foreign women (two from Brazil, two from Colombia and one from Paraguay) in an irregular situation who were prostituting themselves for the main defendant Pedro Carmelo, concludes the note.
ACN Press