Spanish Police Dismantle Sex Trading Gangs Exploiting More Than 1,000 Women

Spanish national police illustration. (Wikimedia Commons/Dickelbers)

JAKARTA - Spanish police managed to dismantle a human trafficking network that has attracted more than 1,000 women to the country over the past year with offers of fake jobs, before forcing them to become sex workers, police said on Sunday.

Women, mostly from Venezuela and Colombia, were told they would work in the beauty or hygiene sector, the Spanish National Police said in a statement.

"Arriving in Spain, they were transferred to clubs where they were sexually exploited and forced to work around the clock," police said.

It didn't stop there, these women were only allowed out for two hours per day and monitored with surveillance cameras.

Three people suspected of being network leaders - two Colombian women and a Spanish woman - were among the 48 suspects arrested in a raid in Alicante and Murcia, in southeastern Spain, and three strip clubs were closed as part of the operation.

The police also confiscated more than 150,000 euros (157,000 US dollars) in cash, blocked a bank account containing 938,000 euros (980,960 US dollars) and confiscated 17 properties.

Six suspects were detained in pretrial detention, police said. Others were released on bail for trial in the future.