At least 19 people who sexually exploited at least 40 Paraguayan women in the Paris region were detained in France, Spain and Paraguay, French police said Wednesday.
At the end of September, eleven people, including the leaders of the network, were arrested in France and four in Spain, Elvire Arrighi, head of the Central Office for the Suppression of Trafficking in Human Beings (OCRTEH), told AFP.
Four other members of the network, three men and one woman, were arrested on Tuesday and Wednesday in Paraguay, where the nearly 40 identified victims, between 20 and 30 years old, were recruited.
The 15 people were charged with "human trafficking in organized gang" and 11 were jailed.
"These are people recruiting victims, promising them a job in Europe, keeping the money from trafficking profits and reinvesting it in real estate on the spot."Elvire Arrighi said, estimating that the "criminal network was familiar and well organized".
During raids in late September in France, some 15 victims were found and interviewed in places of prostitution and 162,000 euros ($ 183,000) in cash and phone cards were seized.
The network was based on a division of functions: "Those who post the ads, those in charge of transferring victims from one apartment to another, those who take calls and make appointments, those in charge of sending the money and those who collect it"Elvire Arrighi said.
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