During a search carried out in an apartment in Aix-en-Provence, the investigators discovered three young women from Latin America. They explained to have arrived in France through encrypted social networks in order to work as “pet”. Two people were arrested.
A network of prostitution network, installed between France and Latin America, was dismantled on Tuesday August 5 in Aix-en-Provence, announces the public prosecutor of Aix-en-Provence. Two people were arrested. They are presented this Friday to an investigating judge.
This Tuesday, August 5, the investigators of the Aix-en-Provence police station obtain information: a person of Colombian nationality is sequestrated in an apartment in the city and forced to engage in prostitution.
The next day, after the active surveillance of the said apartment, rented on a reservation platform, investigators search the premises and challenge two people: a man and a woman they place in police custody.
Three women, of Colombian or Venezuelan nationality, are also in the apartment. “It resulted from their declarations that they were recruited directly in their country of origin through encrypted social networks in order to work as a company lady ‘,” explains the public prosecutor in his press release.
194,000 euros in cash
They explain that at their arrival in France, from Nice airport, they were taken to an apartment. Housing in which they “had to indulge in prostitution 16 hours a day”. To prevent them from escaping, the two suspects confiscated the identity papers of the three young women as well as the money from their activity. Just over 200,000 euros, including 194,000 in cash, were seized by the investigators.
According to the first investigations, 14 young women from Latin America were recruited over a period of two years. They were all delivered to prostitution in apartments rented in Cannes, Aix-en-Provence or Menton.
The two suspects are presented this Friday to the investigating judge “seized of the aggravated pimpting chiefs, arbitrary sequestration of several people, deals with human beings and laundering,” said the prosecution.