MADRID – Police have arrested the leaders of a human trafficking ring that brought Nigerian women to Spain and forced them into prostitution by threatening them with voodoo curses.
Spanish police say many of the 23 suspects were being charged Saturday at a court in the southwestern city of Huelva.
Police said the arrests were triggered by a woman who told police in February of the gang’s intimidation tactics.
They say the gang tempted young Nigerian women to travel to Europe with promises of prosperity and later extorted money and controlled them through intimidation.
The victims, aged 25 to 35, were forced to pay large sums of money to the gang members, who told the women they would go mad or have their souls destroyed if they disobeyed orders given during voodoo rituals that were held in Nigeria involving pieces of their fingernails or hair.
Voodoo is a religion practised primarily in Haiti and parts of Africa.
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