Spanish Police, Interpol, and Paraguay Detain 14 Over Trafficking Women for Sexual Exploitation

Spanish National Police, INTERPOL, and Paraguayan authorities dismantled two criminal organizations allegedly dedicated to trafficking women for sexual exploitation, with Spain reporting seven women rescued and ten people detained and Paraguay reporting four more detained, including a well-known Paraguayan singer.

“Sandrita (fictitious name) was barely a child when she fell into a human trafficking network between Paraguay and Spain”

El Mundo

The El Periódico account says the victims were recruited mainly in Paraguay and were prostituted in escort flats in A Coruña and Córdoba under conditions close to slavery, with the police explaining that travel expenses left the victims in debt to the organizations.

El Mundo

El Periódico also describes how the networks provided plane tickets and means to bypass airport controls, and then moved the women to the various flats they ran, while monitoring them through video surveillance cameras installed in the flats.

In the eight searches carried out in the two operations, authorities seized 19,700 euros in cash, bearer checks worth 63,000 euros, and 27 doses of cocaine, alongside 24 mobile phones and six luxury watches.

El Periódico says the two organizations were independent and had no connection to each other, although their modus operandi shared many elements.

EL PAÍS reports that Spain’s Ministry of the Interior, via a CITCO report released this Wednesday, says 648 victims of trafficking and sexual exploitation were freed last year, and that the state security forces detected 7,697 women at risk, a 9% increase from 2023.

EL PAÍS adds that the figures are very close to those of 2023, when there were 664, and that in 2024 the state security forces detected 261 trafficking victims in irregular administrative status, including five minors, and 387 victims of sexual exploitation without “the involvement of trafficking networks,” including 11 minors.

EL PAÍS

The same EL PAÍS report says that last year 188 police operations against this criminal activity were carried out, resulting in the dismantling of 77 criminal organizations and the detention of 525 people, most of them Spanish nationals.

EL PAÍS also states that in addition to operations, 1,705 administrative inspections were carried out at places of prostitution, identifying 7,697 people at risk for engaging in prostitution at those establishments.

EL PAÍS frames the problem as structural and hidden, noting that the European Parliament and Council approved a new directive related to the prevention and fight against human trafficking and the protection of victims.

INTERPOL says a worldwide-scale operation coordinated as Operation Liberterra III (November 10–21, 2025) rescued 4,414 potential victims of human trafficking and located 12,992 irregular migrants in 119 countries, while leading to the arrest of 3,744 suspects including more than 1,800 for human trafficking and migrant smuggling.

“The National Police, INTERPOL, and Paraguayan authorities have dismantled two criminal organizations allegedly dedicated to trafficking women for sexual exploitation”

El Periódico

INTERPOL reports that law enforcement agencies mobilized more than 14,000 officers and opened more than 720 new investigations, and that INTERPOL Secretary General Mr. Valdecy Urquiza said: “Criminal networks are evolving by taking advantage of new routes, digital platforms, and the vulnerability of populations.”

El Mundo describes how Paraguay is portrayed as a major source of detected victims in Spain, saying it is the second South American nationality with the most trafficking victims in Spain and quoting Paraguayan Minister of Childhood and Adolescence Walter Emilio Gutiérrez at the film’s Madrid premiere: "The crime occurs first in Argentina, followed by Brazil, then Spain, then Bolivia and so on,".

El Mundo also says the film The Price of the Fare is based on real events and focuses on Sandrita and Micaela, while describing a fraudulent travel agency role attributed to Nico, a young man kidnapped at 15 who later recruited Sandra and Micaela for their transfer to Spain.

El Mundo adds that Gutiérrez warned that "Recruitment through social networks is growing rapidly," and that Paraguay is working on a law to protect minors in digital environments.