Spanish reporter infiltrates sex trafficking rings

 

EFE NEWS SERVICE. A Spanish journalist delved into the world of prostitution and sexual trafficking of women and girls until he reached a deal to buy six Mexican minors for some $31,000 each, as long as they were virgins.

"El ano que trafique con mujeres" (The Year I Trafficked in Women), which just hit bookstores in Spain, is the work by Antonio Salas, the journalist's pseudonym, who infiltrated the world of prostitution for a year.

The book begins with a visit by Salas to the head of ANELA, Spain's national association of brothels, who is chairman of the Espana 2000 extreme right-wing party and owns "bordellos where 95 percent" of the prostitutes are immigrants.

In one of the book's chapters, Salas depicts how he became friends with a young Nigerian woman and her pimp, a former boxer from the same country, to whom he paid $17,000 for the girl, the mother of a 4-year-old son.

According to Salas, "elite businessmen, politicians, actors and athletes are willing to spend between 600 and 42,000 euros ($740-$52,000) for a bit of pleasure with a cover girl," a known model, singer or television host.

At the book launching, which Salas did not attend so he could maintain his anonymity, Spanish immigration police chief Carlos Botran said prostitution is inextricably linked to illegal immigration.

He said that in 2003, authorities busted 192 prostitution rings, yielding 761 arrests.

Salas jumped into the fray last year, generating controversy when he published a book after infiltrating the Spanish neo-Nazi movement.

 

http://www.libertadlatina.org/Lat_Mexico_Spain_Reporter_Infiltrates_Traffickers_03-11-2004.htm