Story By: Ana Lacasa, Sub-Editor:  Joana Mihajlovska, Agency: Newsflash

Spanish national police have arrested 20 gang members on the eastern Spanish coast who forced women to work as prostitutes to pay off debts and then fined them to increase the debt for things like wanting to take a shower.

The gang also gave the women fines for resting, or if they were sick and unable to work at nightclubs in cities across eastern Spain and the Costa’s, including Murcia, Alicante, Almeria and Valencia.

The police operation rescued 14 women who were being forced to work as prostitutes for 12 hours every day of the week.

According to the police, if the women wanted to rest or to take a shower then they were fined with between EUR 60 and 200 (GBP 54 and 179).

The people in charge of the nightclubs where they were working refused to give them medical assistance either, but instead punish them with fines of between EUR 300 and 400 (GBP 268 and 357) if they could not work because of illness.

Some of the women were indebted up to EUR 4,000 (GBP 3,577 ) to the gang who threatened them and their families to make sure that the debt continued to be paid off.

The gang also took a percentage of the money paid for sex services. The women were also forced to take drugs along with clients and were strongly controlled by their pimps.

In addition to saving the women during 12 raids at premises across various cities, cops seized 90,000 euros in cash (GBP 80,497 ), five luxury vehicles, three firearms, and two fake guns, as well as cocaine and marijuana that was ready to be sold.

Nine of the 20 gang members that were arrested during the raids have now been sent to prison.

According to the police press statement obtained by Newsflash, the nightclubs the women worked at had stayed open despite coronavirus closures, making the women vulnerable to coronavirus infection.

The suspects, whose names and nationalities have not been revealed, have been charged with human trafficking, sex exploitation, drug trafficking, crimes against the rights of workers, and illegal migration, as well as weapons possession, money laundering and belonging to a criminal gang.

Six clubs where the sex exploitation was taking place have now been shut down.

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