A trafficking network controlled by the Dominican Republic that exploited dozens of South American women in numerous cities in France was dismantled this week, French judicial police announced Sunday.
Forty-one women of Venezuelan, Colombian, Brazilian, or Dominican nationality were rescued during the operation.
The investigation began in May 2022, when the judicial police of Montpellier (south) detected similar advertisements for prostitution services on different specialized websites.
The ads had contact numbers close to each other, while the city where the service was provided changed.
The investigators then discovered “several hundred interrelated advertisements throughout the French territory,” explained to AFP Elvire Arrighi, head of the Central Office for the Suppression of Trafficking in Human Beings (OCRTEH), which took charge of the investigations. Investigations led by Junalco, the specialized organized crime court in Paris.
The prostituted women were transferred from city to city, “generally, medium-sized cities. From north to south, from east to west.” Police station.
The police calculate that the network obtained an annual income of at least two million euros.
The couple suspected of running the organization lived in the Dominican Republic but had a base in Spain and another in Italy.
The organization of the appointments, the accounting, and the publication of the announcements were done from abroad.
Nine people were arrested on Tuesday: one in Italy, two in Spain, two in the Dominican Republic, and four more in France, suspected of providing accommodation for prostitutes. Three of the four arrested in France went to prison.
The five people arrested in Italy, Spain, and the Dominican Republic must appear before the French judge in the coming days.
