Police smash human trafficking and sexual exploitation network in Valencia, Alicante, Murcia and Malaga

A joint operation by Spain's Guardia Civil and National Police forces has led to the dismantling of a human trafficking network that sexually exploited South American women in flats and premises in Valencia, Alicante, Malaga, Murcia, Tarragona and Barcelona.

The investigators freed a large number of young women found in vulnerable situations and arrested a dozen people in Valencia, Carcaixent, Paiporta, Xàtiva, Gandia and other towns. The ringleaders of the network - two men of Colombian and Bolivian origin - were arrested in Valencia province. The investigators attributed to them the crimes of sex trafficking, money laundering, drug trafficking and membership of a criminal organisation.

The organisation used websites that offer sexual services as the main means of attracting clients. The network would then send the women to brothels, most of them located in properties monitored by the ringleaders. The victims' passports were taken away.

During the searches, police officers seized cash, mobile phones, drugs for the clients, drugs for sexual stimulation and documentation linked to the sexual services of the victims.

The detainees were taken to the Guardia Civil and the National Police headquarters for interrogation, after which they were handed over to the courts for trial.