On September 14, Mossos d'Esquadra agents arrested a 23-year-old man while he was trying to forcibly take a woman to France after forcing her to work as a prostitute in Barcelona. The detainee is accused of a crime of human trafficking in the form of sexual exploitation.
According to Mossos, the operation required a "complex and urgent device" that could be activated after the victim called the emergency telephone number in which, in an "altered and fearful" manner, she reported that around 11:45 p.m., her The pimp intended to force her onto a bus to Paris to continue sexually exploiting her in the neighboring country.
Only with this information - without knowing, for example, the identity of the aggressor or the victim - the Mossos launched the "highly complex" device. They went to the Estació del Nord and, once the couple had been identified and had verified that they both had a ticket to the French capital, they intervened at the right moment to say they were going to get on the bus. Then they were separated and the woman confirmed that she was the author of the call to 112. The man was finally arrested and brought to justice on the 17th.
In the Mossos press release, it is not specified how long the aggressor had been exploiting the woman, nor the age of the victim. It is reported that during the year 2022, 13 investigations related to the phenomenon of human trafficking were initiated, a figure that is three more than in 2021. The typology of sexual exploitation is the one that has generated the most investigations, with a total of 6 last year, according to Mossos. As for the victims, a total of 18 of the different typologies were identified, 4 of them referring to sexual exploitation. The average age of the 18 victims was 34 years.
For Mossos, the case also perfectly exemplifies the usefulness of the 112 emergency telephone number.
