When on January 24, the agents of the National Police broke into the Madrid home of José Hernán A. – one of the members of the influencer duo called Petazetaz – they were carrying a court order for arrest and search for several crimes of assault. sexual. Thanks to the investigations, they suspected that the two content creators used their influence on social networks to recruit teenagers, whom they drugged and then sexually assaulted. At that access to the house, the surprise of the uniformed officers was great when they found another minor who was being a victim of what other girls had reported, according to police sources telling La Vanguardia.
It is not an isolated case, according to the National Police, which is concerned about the “drip of similar cases” that are being registered in recent times. And, above all, because of the special vulnerability of the victims. In these cases, it is the minors themselves who contact their future attackers through social networks, attracted by popularity, without assessing the risk they face. Victims do not usually report the facts until the security forces and bodies contact them. Something that, in police consideration, reinforces the idea of the need to raise social awareness to demand citizen collaboration.
The investigation began last December. A young woman reported at the Alcalá de Henares police station that two men with a large number of followers on social networks were abusing minors in a home in Vallecas, east of the capital. Those identified, José Hernán A. and Iván G., aged 34 and 22, call themselves Petazetaz. There were 40,000 followers on Instagram when the news broke yesterday – a figure that rose as the hours went by – and 30,000 on TikTok. They define themselves as “a somewhat peculiar duo” and their videos are intended to be humorous. All content is public: they have not closed their channels despite their arrest and, since yesterday, they are gaining followers.
After receiving the first complaint, the investigators who form Group XXII of the family and care unit for women (UFAM) identified four possible victims, all of them minors. According to sources close to the investigation, the four girls admitted to the agents that they had been victims, but admitted that they had not previously reported the incident out of shame for some and fear for others.
They went to the home of the oldest of those arrested, attracted by the popularity of the duo. The same sources indicate that there are no threats or coercion prior to the meetings. Once at the home, those arrested supplied the victims with GHB – known as a jet or bottle –, a powerful depressant of the central nervous system that, when mixed with soda or juice, is practically undetectable to taste. Administered with a stick, to calculate the dose, it produces euphoria and a feeling of well-being. This drug makes its users “bend” or “overturn”, which is nothing other than losing consciousness. And when victims unintentionally crossed that line, they were allegedly raped.
On other occasions, the influencers forced the minors to perform sexual practices on them as payment for the narcotic substances that they had previously offered them for free. There are videos that would prove sexual assaults. The detainees recorded the abuses with their mobile phones and several security cameras. The agents have found images spread by messaging services without the victim being aware of it.
José Hernán A. was arrested as the alleged perpetrator of two crimes of sexual assault, one crime of rape, exhibitionism, child pornography and five crimes against public health. He had a record of crimes against public health, according to the same sources. After being brought to justice, the investigator of the case ordered his entry into provisional prison, but yesterday he was already free thanks to an appeal presented by his lawyer. He will remain that way, in principle, until the trial is held. Iván G. is charged with the crime of sexual assault. He is also free.
