The National Police has arrested six men in Tenerife for the alleged responsibility of the crimes of prostitution of minors, sexual assault and child pornography. These people favored the prostitution of minors to varying degrees, from profit from travel to hotel reservations in which they were not registered. The operation began following a complaint from a worker at a sheltered center for minors, which activated investigators from the GRUME of the National Police. The worker stated that, on the cell phone of one of the girls at the center, he had observed text messages that led him to believe that the teenager could be working as a prostitute.
Immediately, the researchers deployed a series of measures, in the physical and virtual world, to verify the extent of this situation. Thus, tracking advertisements on websites, instant messaging service channels or hotel reservations revealed that they were facing the possible prostitution of more than one minor. Thanks to investigative measures such as virtual patrolling and the analysis of the pornographic material collected, it was possible to evade the security measures adopted by those involved, thus identifying six men as the alleged perpetrators of the crimes described, collects a note from the National Police.
Two of those investigated, in charge of a hostess club in the south of the island of Tenerife in which minors were prostituted, would have tried to coerce them to cover up their participation. Despite this, National Police investigators have managed to identify five underage girls who were victims of these events, without ruling out that the number of victims could be higher.
50 officers from different services of the Provincial National Police Station of Santa Cruz de Tenerife participated in the operation, carrying out five entries and searches that culminated in the arrest of six men for their alleged participation in the events investigated. The researchers intervened 15 smartphonesa laptop and multiple external storage devices.
Among those arrested were those in charge of a hostess club in a well-known leisure area in the south of Tenerife who, allegedly, were dedicated to recruiting these minors and exploiting them sexually outside of the establishment's opening hours. The detainees, after being heard in their statements, were placed at the disposal of the competent judicial authority, which ordered the imprisonment of three of them.
The National Police has begun the second phase of the investigation, in which more than 200 buyers of child pornography spread throughout Spain, as well as new clients and facilitators of the prostitution of minors, have been identified. which new arrests are expected.
You can write to the National Police email account if you are aware of facts such as these: [email protected]. In addition, the 016 telephone number serves the victims of all sexist violence – from psychological to sexual, economic or trafficking – their families and those around them 24 hours a day, every day. days of the year, in 53 different languages. The number is not recorded on the telephone bill, but the call must be deleted from the device. You can also contact us via email [email protected] and by WhatsApp at the number 600 000 016. Minors can contact the ANAR Foundation telephone number 900 20 20 10. If it is an emergency situation, you can call 112 or the National Police telephone numbers (091 ) and the Civil Guard (062). And if you cannot call, you can use the ALERTCOPS application, from which an alert signal is sent to the Police with geolocation.