"They are timed during the passes": in the horror of the Bulgarian prostitution network

For two weeks, the Bobigny criminal court has plunged into "a parallel world", according to the word of the deputy prosecutor, Anne-Gaëlle Martin, depicting a network of prostitution of Bulgarian Roma and human trafficking.

She demanded up to ten years in prison with 800,000 euros for the chief pimps.

Since 2015, they prostituted in Seine-Saint-Denis and Ile-de-France young girls from underprivileged regions of Bulgaria.

Fifteen defendants are on trial, including five men at the head of clans, the street bosses - prostitutes mounted in rank -, henchmen, and close family.

Fifteen passes per day

The victims will remain mere "silhouettes".

The deputy prosecutor enumerates these Slavic-sounding names one by one: Marinella, Polya, Georgiana, Ilona, ​​Elenka, Teodora, Veselina… For those - about fifteen girls - who could be identified.

Because “their bodies are being taken away from them.

They make fifteen passes a day, ”she explains.

Throughout the phone tapping, pimps rarely call prostitutes by their first name.

They prefer to say: "the bitch", "the rotten meat", "the bucket".

“Women are reduced to the status of slaves.

They are timed during the passes ”, explains the lawyer of the association of Team action against pimping.

Prostitutes "sold" 1000 to 1200 euros

None of these victims are present at the trial.

The only complaint was withdrawn.

Veselina, who was the first to denounce her pimps, has not been found since.

Three years of investigation were necessary to dismantle the network and extradite the key men to France.

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A network made up of a small group of men who “reign as absolute masters”.

Raycho, Oggy, Valcho, Bobcho and Mariyan, all in their thirties, are the clan leaders.

They control the purchases and sales of young women, from 1000 to 1200 euros per prostitute that they exchange "like handkerchiefs".

Street leaders make terror reign

They take almost all of the income from the passes and will not hesitate to invoice one of the girls for the cost of her abortion.

The flows released by the pimps could not be traced.

They are suspected of having invested in real estate in the country and bought nice cars with the money from pimping.

Estimates put the profits between 300 and 600 euros per day and per prostitute.

Or "9000 euros per month", indicates the substitute.

Between the bosses and the girls, slip the street bosses.

They are prostitutes or the wives of pimps.

They are their eyes and ears and contribute to the network's activity, leading prostitutes to the gates of Paris, in the Sénart forest (Seine-et-Marne).

They watch their actions.

Sissa, one of them, asked the girls to leave the phone on during the passes to better control them.

When the recruits didn't work fast enough, they beat them up.

Elenka also plays the tout by recruiting girls in Bulgaria and selecting "those who do the trash, who do not understand money."

It all starts with romance and a potential job in France ...

These clans are structured around families.

Valcho's mother, Nikolenka, 60, with white hair pulled back in a ponytail, is accused of managing the pitches and collecting money on behalf of her son.

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To enslave these girls, the clan exerts a total constraint.

It all starts with romance and a potential job in France as a housekeeper.

Once in Paris, everything turns into extreme violence.

Valcho uses and abuses it on Bobbi, who is also his son's mother.

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On one eavesdrop, he boasts of having "messed up so badly that she couldn't work again for four to five days."

Bobcho, another pimp, will go so far as to run into one of his daughters: "This bitch, I ran over her in the car, but it was not enough, I should have crushed her brain, and it is what I am going to do."

For Me Philippe-Henry Honegger, lawyer for Nikolenka and Valcho, these relations between prostitutes and pimps cannot be reduced to a simple commodification.

“It's a bit more complex.

It is not the big bad wolf who exploits the misery of girls (...) Sometimes there is an element of tenderness, even if they have made incredible life choices.

We live in poverty.

We love each other, we hate each other.

These are human situations.

But it is absolutely reprehensible. ”

The last pleadings must end on Tuesday.