A recidivist pimp, at the head of a network of sexual exploitation of Chinese women

Agents of the National Police have arrested 63 people and have dismantled a criminal organization of Chinese origin, based in Zaragoza and Bilbao, allegedly dedicated to the sexual exploitation of women and to favoring the irregular immigration of citizens of the same nationality. Five victims have been released. The head of the network is a Chinese citizen who had already been arrested in Barcelona for similar events in 2012. "A woman of about 50 years, who had been in Spain for 15 and who had previously dedicated herself to prostitution, for what she had with a wide network of contacts throughout Spain”, point out the researchers who offered a press conference on Tuesday at the Canillas police complex. The recidivist pimp and her "senior partner" have entered prison,when they tried to "expand the business" with a new dating floor in Madrid.

The criminal network was structured in two differentiated and coordinated branches. The branch located in Zaragoza recruited women of Chinese origin, specifically from the Xintao region and in situations of helplessness or poverty, to sexually exploit them in flats in "semi-slavery conditions." On the other hand, the structure based in Vizcaya, was dedicated to regularizing the situation in our country of compatriots through false employment contracts and fictitious registrations. Each immigrant paid between 8,000 and 10,000 euros for these services, which would have brought the organization an estimated profit of 5 million euros.

In addition to the 63 people arrested (50 in Bilbao, 12 in Zaragoza and one in Madrid), the agents have released five women victims of the organization and have carried out 15 house searches in which they have seized more than 115,000 euros in cash and substances. narcotics. The liberated women, between 30 and 40 years old, had been in Spain from two weeks to two years. “Normally, there were two or three girls in each rented flat and they were rotated, but the covid restrictions complicated travel from China,” the agents point out. All of them, now free, have been taken in by an NGO.

The investigation began thanks to the complaint of one of the victims who went to the Zaragoza police station accompanied by a compatriot last May. His statement put the agents on the trail of the criminal organization dedicated to trafficking women for sexual exploitation. “He said that he had been under the tutelage of that

for two years , who came with the commitment that he would have a better life, acquiring a debt that he never finished paying and under the threat that they would harm his family there,” he explains. an investigator.

The investigations have confirmed the existence of a criminal network of Chinese origin, with two distinct and perfectly coordinated branches through their respective leaders, dedicated to the fraudulent regularization of immigrants, prostitution and drug trafficking.

Catchment

The branch of the organization located in Zaragoza captured women of the same nationality, with the false promise of a better life in our country, to later sexually exploit them in dating floors. The victims were forced by that "

" -of a "tyrant" character, according to the agents- to work "24 hours a day, in unsanitary rooms, without protection measures and with total availability seven days a week", according to what they have explained the researchers this Tuesday. They advertised their services through flyers that they distributed on the street or on Internet pages. "They were always ads in Spanish, since most of the customers were Spanish," the agents have pointed out.

In addition, the victims were forced to sell all kinds of narcotic substances to their clients before or after sexual services and to consume them themselves.

To obtain their release, the women had to pay the exploiters large amounts of money that included unaffordable high interest rates.

The researchers estimate that "they assumed debts of between 40,000 and 50,000 euros."

residence permits

The second disjointed branch was based in the province of Vizcaya and was dedicated to processing the residence in our country of those compatriots who hired their services for amounts ranging between 8,000 and 10,000 euros. Through the use of dozens of shell companies and apartments controlled by the organization, the network generated false employment contracts and fictitious registrations with which they requested temporary residence and work authorizations for their clients due to exceptional circumstances. Thanks to this illegal activity, the investigators calculate that the organization would have obtained an approximate benefit of at least five million euros.

The police operation has ended with the arrest of 60 citizens of Chinese nationality, two Spaniards and one Pakistani. In the 15 house searches carried out —eight in Zaragoza, six in Bilbao and one in Madrid— more than 115,000 euros in cash, narcotic substances, various electronic devices, and a large amount of documentation relevant to the investigation have been seized. The researchers, who have insisted on the difficulty involved in dismantling this type of network, are convinced that new operations will be opened with this information.

The operation, called Goliat-Boga, is part of the National Police Plan against trafficking in human beings for the purpose of sexual exploitation.

The National Police has the telephone line 900 10 50 90 and the e-mail treat@policia.es to facilitate citizen collaboration and the anonymous and confidential reporting of this type of crime, the call not being reflected in the telephone bill.