INFO FRANCEINFO. A major pimping network dismantled in France and Romania

Seven alleged members of a pimping network were arrested on Tuesday March 22 in the morning, franceinfo learned from OCRTEH, the Central Office for the Suppression of Trafficking in Human Beings. At least 28 victims have been identified, of Romanian nationality, aged between 20 and 30 years old. “Young women abused and completely under the influence”, explains to franceinfo the head of the OCRTEH, Elvire Arrighi. Some had even been tattooed with a crown, a distinctive sign to show that they belonged to the main respondent.

Two of the alleged members of this network were arrested in Marseille and Montpellier and placed in police custody as part of a judicial investigation opened by a judge from the JIRS (specialized interregional jurisdiction) of Marseille for trafficking in human beings in an organized gang . The other five were arrested in Romania, they must be handed over to French justice as part of a European arrest warrant. In total, 20,000 euros were seized during the searches. One of the defendants is considered a target of high importance by Europol (“high value target”), Europol which had set up a task force with the French, Spanish and Romanian police to dismantle this network.

The investigation began two years ago. OCRETH has established that these young Romanian women passed through Spain before arriving in France, especially in the Southeast. Vulnerable young women who were recruited in Romania, with the strategy of “loverboys”, that is to say young men in their twenties who seduced them and gained their confidence. Gradually they became emotionally, financially and psychologically dependent. It was then that the members of the network made them gradually switch to prostitution when they joined them in Spain and France.

Tuesday morning, among the 28 identified victims of this network, some were heard in Avignon, Montpellier, Aix-en-Provence, Marseille, Grenoble, Tours or Limoges. The survey shows that the young women changed towns every week. The procurers only came to France to collect the money and move the victims from town to town. These suspects had a very large lifestyle, they traveled with luxury cars and lived in large villas. The money was laundered in Romania according to the investigators in companies or real estate.