"The Catalonian police have stopped the activities of a criminal gang in Costa
Brava that brought women from Russia and forced them to become sex-slaves," the
police source said.
The majority of 40 women, freed from sex-slavery in a special police operation,
came from St. Petersburg and had been held in captivity under threats of
physical violence, the official said.
Seven people, including the leader of the gang - an Albanian citizen - have
been arrested and now are facing criminal charges of human-trafficking and
organizing a prostitution ring.
Among other members of the gang are three Russians, an Albanian, a native of
Kosovo, and an Armenian citizen.
According to the Russian Interior Ministry, human trafficking from Russia has
intensified in recent years.
Criminal groups involved in this highly-profitable business normally recruit
groups of several women, promising to buy them tourist visas and help them find
legal work abroad. The women are then forced into prostitution to pay for money
spent on their travel abroad and their documents are stolen, leaving the women
as sexual slaves.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights reported last year that more than
500,000 women have been sold from Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union
in early 1990s.
