Plan to 'abolish prostitution'
Action undertaken to bring an end to the Valencia region vice trade
TWO working groups are being set up by the Valencia government to draw up a plan to ‘abolish the sex trade’ in the region.
Councillor for justice and the interior Gabriela Bravo noted that their research shows that as many as 10,000 women are being ‘prostituted’ in the three provinces of Alicante, Valencia and Castellón.
She stated that men are paying an estimated €762,000 a day to have sex with these women – making an annual total of €278 million for the vice trade.
“This is completely intolerable,” said Sra Bravo.
“Paying for sex is a form of gender violence.”
The councillor added that ‘it should be abolished’.
For this reason they will work to create a ‘solid proposal’ to ensure that the Valencia region brings an end to sexual exploitation.
She said that they will work with the national government, which is drawing up reforms to the penal code that will allow them to punish the owners of brothels.
Sra Bravo also called on her party colleagues in Madrid to bring in more complete legislation to halt sexual exploitation and human trafficking, ‘a terrible way of reducing people to being mere merchandise’.
Regional action
A new group, the Valencia forum for the abolition of prostitution (Foro Valenciano para la Abolición de la Prostitución) was presented last week.
This will bring together experts who will produce ‘a packet of measures’ which will advise on how to bring in the legal changes necessary to ‘eradicate this form of extreme violence against women’.
Sra Bravo explained that they will work in two groups to put forward their proposals.
She said that work would start this month and they will present their reports within the next year.
The first group will study the current legislation pertaining to the vice trade ‘with a view to proposing the modifications at a municipal, regional and national level which will allow prostitution to be abolished’.
The second one will focus on the victims of the vice trade so that the help they need is made available.
The justice department is also commissioning two studies – one from Valencia university which will investigate the exact number of women involved in the sex trade and their social and family situations; and another from Miguel Hernández university in Elche which will look at the ‘perception that society has of prostitution’.
They will also launch campaigns to educate the public, especially young people, about the vice trade.
A GANG which used speedboats to traffic drugs along the whole Mediterranean coast has been caught in a joint operation by the authorities.
The National Police, Guardia Civil and customs announced that they have seized five boats, four lorries, two vans, 10 highpowered outboard motors, a large quantity of fuel, and navigation and communication equipment with a market value well over €1.5 million.
The three forces detected the logistics infrastructure at the beginning of this year during investigations into drug trafficking that they were undertaking together.
The gang allegedly provided services to one or more criminal organisations dedicated to large scale drug trafficking.
Officers were able to identify the people who acquired, stole, maintained and hid these Rigid Hull Inflatable Boats (RHIBs), as well as the various warehouses where they stored them and the vehicles used to transport them.
Searches were carried out of three industrial warehouses in Alcora (Castellón), where the gang was storing all the material that has now been seized.
During the searches, officers caught three people, two Spaniards and a Moroccan, while they were transporting and working on the boats, several of which were ready to be put into use for the alleged drug trafficking activity.
Some of these boats had been fitted with several 300 horsepower outboard motors, ‘turning them into real Formula 1 vehicles of the sea, able to reach very high speeds and manoeuvrability, which makes it extremely difficult to intercept them if they are detected’, explained the spokesman.
“These cases also constitute potential risks to other boats and people engaged in nautical activities,” he noted.
The operation was coordinated by the court of investigation in Castellón de la Plana.
In 2018 the government prohibited any private use of
RHIBs without authorisation, precisely because they are so commonly used for smuggling but it is very difficult to take action if no drugs or contraband are on board.
'El Tapi' nabbed
In another Guardia Civil operation announced this week, officers disbanded a gang of drug smugglers and seized 8,655 kilograms of hashish, a firearm and six RHIBs, making a total of 46 arrests.
Operation ‘Asgard’ was
carried out in Cádiz, Málaga, Almería, Murcia, Barcelona and the Spanish autonomous city of Ceuta.
Warehouses in Murcia were amongst those used to store and refuel the boats, noted a force spokesman.
The suspects include the gang’s alleged ringleader, a 33-year-old Moroccan known as ‘El Tapi’, who was considered one of the force’s principal targets in its fight against drug trafficking in the Campo de Gibraltar area.