Police in Spain in association with the Office of the Criminal Investigation in Germany and Europol have rescued over 21 Nigerian prostitutes and arrested about 24 suspects, including members of ‘Supreme Eiye Confraternity cult, in the districts of Ibiza, Spain for human trafficking.
The girls, among whom were as young as 16 years, were taken to the European country with the promises of providing them jobs, but were forced to sleep with men 14 hours a day.
According Mail Online, the girls were allegedly beaten with brooms and sticks once they failed to turn in €1,000 daily.
A police spokesperson told newsmen in Ibiza, “The network captured very young victims among the lower classes of the major Nigerian cities, deceiving them with false job offers in Spain.”
“Once in our country, they were forced into prostitution in marathon days, being beaten if they did not earn the money demanded by the gang.”
According to the report, the prostitutes were kept in one apartment and only allowed out occasionally to buy food or to keep an appointment with a client.
The spokesman added, “If they didn’t earn 1,000 euros a day, they would be forced to kneel for hours and beaten with sticks and brooms.”
According to the police, 17 women were made to share one apartment of just 30 square metres, with three to four girls sleeping in one single bed.
The vulnerable girls were given employment offers ‘too good to refuse’ in view of their poor circumstances but once captured, were unable to escape.
They were subjected to voodoo rituals and sworn to loyalty contracts under the threat of family members being killed.
The women were smuggled into Europe on boats and planes and were only told their job offer was false when they arrived in Spain.
For the girls to regain freedom from the captors, they were told they would have to pay up to 50,000 pounds and could do so through prostitution.
Two highly experienced women were among those nabbed and paraded by the police and they are purportedly the ringleaders in recruiting vulnerable girls.
Police further explained that the women took elaborate steps to avoid detection, often moving the girls from house to house.
Another member of the gang was arrested in Germany where he had tried to hide while five other arrested suspects were found to be members of the ‘Supreme Eiye Confraternity’.
The money made from the girls’ prostitution was sent to Nigeria through Spain’s capital city, Madrid, where a bar was used as the front.
The authorities have raided seven properties in Spain and Germany and 20 bank accounts have been blocked.
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