Four people, three men and a woman of Bulgarian nationality, suspected of being involved in an international network of human trafficking and pimping in France and Italy, were arrested on April 13 in Bruges (Gironde) in the Bordeaux agglomeration, learned franceinfo from a source close to the investigation. These four people have been charged. Three were placed in pre-trial detention, the fourth under judicial control.
It was the investigators of the Bordeaux judicial police who arrested these four people on April 13 in a wild camp on the outskirts of the Bordeaux conurbation, after a three-year-long investigation, initiated in 2019. This investigation had initially allowed to identify a 36-year-old man suspected of being the head of this pimping network. He had been arrested in Bulgaria “for serious facts whose contours remain to be defined”, according to this source close to the investigation.
He was then placed in detention but continued to lead the network from his cell. This man was then in contact with his wife and with two henchmen responsible for finding women in Bulgaria and forcing them into prostitution in France, Germany and Italy. On his release from detention, this head of the network had then joined France before being arrested with his wife and his two henchmen on April 13 in Bruges.
During the arrest of these four people, the investigators were able to identify and discuss with three women alleged victims of this network. Aged 25 to 52, they then said that they had been recruited in Bulgaria then brought back to France, housed and forced into prostitution, in particular in parking areas reserved for truck drivers. Investigators believe that other women, who have yet to be identified, may have been victims of this network because the women “turned around” depending on the month. They also suspect this network of having adapted to the health crisis by regularly changing countries.
The leader of the network, according to investigators, assaulted and threatened women who tried to escape prostitution activities. This man has a history for this type of facts in Bulgaria. The other three people arrested have antecedents for other types of crimes.
During the police operation, investigators from the judicial police seized 1,600 euros in cash as well as a high-value car, an Audi A8. With the Regional Intervention Group of Gironde, investigations are continuing to investigate the heritage accumulated by the network.