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Colombia rescues 49 women from 'sexual slavery'
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Police officers carry out a operation in the notorious section of Bogota known as The Bronx, plagued by rampant drug trafficking and prostitution rings, on May 31, 2016 just days after a raid. Thousands of police officers accompanied by city officials and Technical Investigation Corps (CTI) of the Prosecutor raided on Saturday the area plagued by drug addicts, prostitution and children who were sexually exploited. The police rescued some 200 young women and girls who were being held against their will and sexually exploited, city officials said.
GUILLERMO LEGARIA / AFP (AFP/Guillermo Legaria)
A
lmost 50 women trafficked through underground tunnels to work as nightclub "sex slaves" were rescued from the tourism hotspot Cartagena, Colombian prosecutors said on Monday.
The victims -- 26 Colombians and 23 Venezuelans -- were allegedly forced into working as prostitutes in nightclub basements connected by a series of tunnels.
They were tricked with false promises of work before being held captive in "precarious conditions," Attorney General Mario Gomez said in a press conference.
The victims were relieved of their passports and identity cards by a network of pimps engaged in the "sexual exploitation of women."
A series of raids linked to the Operation Vesta launched several weeks ago resulted in 18 arrests last month.
Gomez said police were hot on the heels of the pimps' headquarters and said they would be tried for "trafficking people for sexual slavery."
Gomez said the "geographical corridors close to the Caribbean coast," including Cartagena, provided the "majority of sexual tourism" in Colombia.
The US State Department has described Colombia as a "source and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to sex and labor trafficking."
