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Tuesday April 18, 11:13 PMSpain breaks Russian prostitute ring, arrests 100MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish police said on Tuesday they have broken a crime ring believed to have flown hundreds of Russian women to Spain where they were forced into prostitution.Around 100 people were arrested in the 11-month operation, which began after one of the women escaped from a prostitution business in the southern city of Cordoba and denounced her captors. The women were recruited in Moscow through newspaper adverts promising well-paid jobs in Spain. They had visas and air travel paid for by Russian criminals, police said in a statement. Once in Spain they became the "property" of people who ran prostitution businesses in cities including Almeria, Cordoba, Granada and Zaragoza, police said. Women were forced to work as prostitutes in night clubs, massage parlours and private homes until they paid off debts for travel costs and other expenses, police said. In some cases they incurred fines for actions like being rude to clients, leaving lights on or eating outside set meal times -- thus increasing their debts. In one raid in Zaragoza, police found reservations for 190 air tickets to fly women to Spain. It was at least the third foreign prostitution ring Spanish police have broken in the past year. Up to 400,000 prostitutes work in Spain, according to one estimate by a Spanish trade union. More than 90 percent are immigrants. |
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