Crime
Three arrested in Ceuta over suspected facilitation of illegal immigration and drug-facilitated sexual assault
The police have found ten people, including four minors, crammed into a flat in the Barrio del Príncipe area
C. P. S.
Madrid
The National Police have arrested three people in Ceuta on suspicion of facilitating illegal immigration. In the framework of the same operation, they located ten ... migrants, four of whom minors, held at an overcrowded property in the Barrio del Príncipe area.
Furthermore, a migrant woman has reported that she was sexually assaulted while under the influence of a drug one of the detainees administered to her during her stay at the property.
After taking the statements of two siblings, a man and a woman, who had entered the country on 30 July, the investigators learnt of some very serious incidents. The woman stated that she had been the victim of a sexual assault, while her brother reported that he had been held against his will at the property and had been subjected to constant threats.
The police launched a coordinated police investigation with the aim of clarifying the circumstances, identifying the perpetrators and determining the extent of the criminal activity taking place on the premises.
In the early hours of 4 November, the police conducted a search at the property. They arrested the alleged leader of the criminal network, charging him with membership of a criminal organisation, facilitation of illegal immigration, unlawful detention, threats, coercion and sexual assault.
The investigators also arrested two other members of the network on suspicion of membership of a criminal organisation, unlawful detention and coercion, enforcing discipline within the premises through the use of violence and coercive measures.
While searching the property, the police found ten foreign nationals inside, four of whom were minors. They lived in conditions of extreme overcrowding and squalor. The police immediately transferred the migrants to the temporary reception centre for foreign nationals.
During the search, the police seized various items that could prove relevant to the investigation, among them a large wooden club and a glass container holding the remains of tablets of a sedative medicine. This latter discovery is of particular significance in the context of the reported sexual assault.
The operation remains ongoing and the police are not ruling out further arrests.
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