Orléans, Nancy, Lisieux, Rennes… The ads, offering paid sexual relations with forty young women of Latin American origin, were broadcast in around ten French cities. Last April, the police revealed the existence of this prostitution network established in France, according to a highly experienced organization.
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It was a couple living in Rouen, originally from the Dominican Republic, who operated the switchboard for this criminal enterprise, taking calls and publishing advertisements. Investigators from the judicial police and the Orléans Interministerial Research Group (GIR) even found accounting notebooks at their home. For these services, they took 40% of the amount of the pass, thus granting themselves up to 20,000 euros per month in income. For the transport of women, a Peruvian and two Dominicans took over.
An “industrial” organization
France has seen networks of this type develop over the past fifteen years, although they were historically more present in Spain. The reason: pimps rely on the higher purchasing power of clients in France, allowing them to increase the price of sexual services. In France, half of the victims of trafficking in sexually exploited human beings are of foreign origin and under the authority, for the most part, of criminal groups from Latin America and the Caribbean. This is what a criminal intelligence note dated January 10 reveals, consulted by The Point, who points a real “industrial” organization of these pimping networks.
In 2023, 18 networks of this type, compared to 5 in 2015, were dismantled on French territory, involving 86 suspects coming mainly from the Dominican Republic, Paraguay, Colombia and Brazil, like the majority of their victims. “These networks frequently rely on logistical bases in transit countries”, we can read in the document: “Often Spain, for linguistic reasons and ease of entry and obtaining residence permits , and sometimes Italy and Portugal, particularly with regard to Brazilian criminal networks. These intermediary countries allow victims to enter Europe, then serve to organize prostitution activity remotely. »
Permanent monitoring of victims
At the origin of these networks, thugs who target women from their country of origin, by promising to get them out of their financial difficulties or by deceiving them about the real conditions in which they will have to work. In the latter case, when the victims arrive in Europe, certain criminals continue to lure them for some time by taking them on tourist visits, before the trap closes. Once in France, they are moved from one city to another and to hotels or apartments rented on short-term booking applications, to prevent them from forming links that would allow them to escape the network. This organization also allows these sectors to “vary their promotional offer”.
-Technically, it's an octopus that sets up, sometimes managed by individuals based in three different countries. The sponsors manage the network from Latin America, via telephone switchboards which are installed in intermediate countries. These individuals make appointments, organize victims' schedules, and sometimes even do the accounting. While a third team takes care of logistics: “bodyguards, henchmen, drivers, collectors…”, relates the note consulted by The Point.
The development of digital surveillance
The control over the victims is total: “When they are not monitored by a member of the criminal organization, the obligation to report permanently, via encrypted messaging, generates powerful digital and psychological control,” notes the criminal intelligence. The pressure can be psychological, but also physical with threats of reprisals, against women or their families remaining in their country of origin. Surveillance is also increasingly digital with the use of cameras and microphones.
The commission paid to the pimp represents between 40 and 60% of income.Note from the Organized Crime Information Service (Sirasco)
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Keeping victims under the influence of their tormentor involves confiscating their passports and restricting their ability to move. It also involves financial constraints: “They must pay back all of their earnings while they repay their “debt”, which is often greatly overvalued (travel costs and procedures, accommodation, food, lingerie, condoms, etc.). Once this debt is repaid, the commission paid to the pimp represents between 40 and 60% of the income. »
The police analysts' note describes a “fragmented” organization and a strong capacity for adaptation on the part of the criminals. Which complicates the work of investigators responsible for dismantling international networks. Cooperation with Spain and countries in Latin America and the Caribbean is in place, with, for many investigations, a co-referral from the Central Office for the Suppression of Trafficking in Human Beings (OCRTEH).
