Morocco-Spain: Human Trafficking Cell Dismantled in Joint Coordination

The Spanish Interior Ministry Tuesday announced the arrest, in coordination with Moroccan security forces, of several members of a cell involved in human trafficking in Gibraltar Strait.

The cell members, mostly Nigerians, are also suspected for commercial sexual exploitation of young women also largely from Nigeria.

The arrest of the traffickers was possible thanks to Morocco’s General Directorate of National Security (DGSN) and was carried out in two phases, the ministry noted in a statement.

The first phase led to the arrest on Spanish territory of the seven men operating in the commercial exploitation of women, coming from Nigeria.

The Spanish police in August 2015 launched a probe into the case of a 16-year old Nigerian girl in a reception center for minors in Ceuta. She was reportedly victim of human trafficking. The probe according to the ministry led to the criminal cell based in Torrevieja, south-eastern Spain.

The investigation also helped to discover 39 young Nigerian women living in dire conditions and sexually exploited every day under the supervision of the criminal gang. According to the Spanish Interior Ministry, the young women lived only on bread and were forced to produce shopping receipts to prove that they did not buy any other thing.

They were maltreated and crammed into one single room, the Ministry added.

The second phase of the investigation enabled security forces to nab members of the cell in Morocco and in Nigeria.