AFP. — Spanish police reported on Thursday that officers arrested 17 people who posed as members of the Tren de Aragua criminal organization to threaten Venezuelan women and force them into prostitution after luring them to Spain under pretenses.
The organization targeted vulnerable women in Venezuela and arranged what it presented as tourist trips to Spain. Once the women arrived, the group informed them that they owed between €7,000 and €9,000 (approximately $8,000 to $10,000), “a debt they had to repay through prostitution,” Spain’s National Police explained in a statement.
“The suspects posed as members of Tren de Aragua to strengthen their threats against the women,” the statement said, referring to the feared criminal organization that originated in a Venezuelan prison and later expanded across several Latin American countries.
Police rescued “14 victims of human trafficking for sexual exploitation, along with another 12 potential victims,” the statement added.
According to investigators, the group forced the women to “remain available 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” and barred them from rejecting any client or refusing any sexual practice.
Authorities also reported that the network operated brothel apartments in several Spanish cities, including Madrid and Santa Cruz de Tenerife in the Canary Islands.
A judge ordered three of the main suspects into pretrial detention, while investigators continue efforts to identify accomplices who recruited the victims in Venezuela, police added.
