Palma.The National and Local Police forces mounted a joint operation against a group of violent prostitutes who, according to police sources, have been behaving like commandoes, using military-style tactics to stake out their victims and plan their attacks very carefully. The operation which was mounted along the Playa de Palma had been weeks in the planning and all of the 14 women targeted by the police are Nigerian.
One was arrested, 13 others cautioned and police sources said that they were all working for an organised crime syndicate which charges the women 40'000 euros for the right to work in the Arenal and Playa de Palma area during peak season.
Should any of them fail to pay, then members of their family with pay the price, often with violence, back home in Nigeria.
According to the police, the women would position themselves in strategic locations close to hotels where holiday makers who had been out drinking would easily fall into their traps as they made there way back to their accommodation.
Assaulted
The prostitutes would also target the drunker of their victims meaning they would often accept the sexual advances of the prostitutes, and get robbed in the process, or, in the case of rejecting the women, be assaulted and robbed.
Apparently, most of the women have permission to reside in Spain, mainly through marriages of convenience, also arranged by organised criminal gangs, according to the police.
Police sources said yesterday that the regular crack downs are going to continue through the Summer season while a series of investigations are being carried out into the organised gangs for whom the prostitutes are working for. These gangs are becoming increasingly well organised, most have their paper work in order and that complicates things but we're not giving up, one police source warned.