Pimping, less risky than drug trafficking but very profitable, is gaining more and more ground in the working-class cities of France.
Five men, aged 25 to 33, were indicted on Thursday April 1 in Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône) for aggravated pimping.
They are suspected of having exploited between 2017 and 2019 at least twelve women, aged 20 to 30, during "sex-tours", a system of itinerant prostitution, which were organized in large urban centers across France.
The case began at the end of 2019 when investigators from the Marseille city pimping repression squad received information concerning a group of suspected pimps, originally from the city of Pins in Vitrolles.
These men, mostly of Comorian origin, are suspected of having set up a lucrative traffic.
"They recruited girls who were a little lost or downright venal, during parties in nightclubs or bars, to whom he offered to help them prostitute themselves", specifies a source familiar with the matter.
Meetings at the hotel in large cities
The chef advertised on specialized sites.
Customer calls were received by a switchboard operator and appointments were made in hotel rooms.
“The girls were moved in groups of three.
They were always accompanied by two bodyguards, who also read the counters up to 50% of the winnings ”.
Investigators discovered that the criminals had sent around 40,000 euros to the Comoros by cash order.
"They have probably blazed everything else, because we have not found any heritage," adds the same source.
The prostitution network went through Bordeaux (Gironde), Toulouse (Haute-Garonne), Rennes (Ille-et-Vilaine) or Strasbourg (Bas-Rhin).
PODCAST. The explosion of city pimping
The Covid-19 epidemic put the brakes on the investigations of Marseille investigators.
In March, the police resumed their investigation and Tuesday, the police arrested five men and a woman, in Vitrolles and Marseille, before placing them in police custody.
During questioning, the suspected pimps confessed.
Three of them were imprisoned, the other two were released under judicial supervision.