Tim McNulty
A RAID on a Costa del Sol brothel has freed a group of women who had been held captive and exploited by their drug-dealing pimps.
Spanish National Police rescued the eight women during an operation that targeted a Marbella basement property after a tip-off to a people-trafficking hotline.
The officers discovered the women had been banned from leaving the basement which was being run as a 24-hour brothel with a bar.
“The investigation found that the women were recruited in Spain,
“Some of them voluntarily sought work at the brothel while others were tricked with offers of work in a ‘massage parlour’.
“Once there they were subjected to a system of fines, exhausting days and threats,” said Spain’s National Police.
The investigation also saw 21 alleged Portuguese gang members arrested as well as the seizure of cocaine and MDMA, which the gang supplied to customers.
Spain effectively decriminalised prostitution in 1995 and has been trying to crack down on trafficking and exploitation.
Spain’s domestic sex trade has been valued at €23.4 billion a year, and involves an estimated 300,000 people, according to recent estimates.
