ISSUE NO. 1641
15 - 21 December 2016
Stop Press
COSTA DE ALMERÍA
YOUR PAPER, YOUR VOICE, YOUR OPINION
DON’T MISS OUR CHRISTMAS SPECIAL INSIDE! PAGES 42 - 43
One of the most appalling cases of sexual slavery ever uncovered in Spain is finally going to trial, with prosecutors demanding sentences of more than 400 years for the accused who lured women from Eastern Europe promising them a better life. Hundreds of young girls were then enslaved in villages, towns and cities across the Costa and throughout the entire province for years, forced into prostitution while their captors pocketed the profits.
Now the provincial court of Almeria has put on trial 28 defendants of differing nationalities accusing them of masterminding a sophisticated human trafficking and prostitution ring centred around 13 local strip clubs. At least 165 women were held in filthy, overcrowded conditions, crammed on to mattresses flung across the floor, with very little food and ample drugs, having been ensnared with promises of a job and new life in Spain. They each had to pay up to
Poison puzzle MYSTERY continues to surround the untimely death of one of Almeria’s most famous exports. Fifty two-year-old transvestite Cristina Ortiz Rodriguez, born Jose Antonio but better known by her stage name La Veneno (The Poison) died on November 9 after spending four days in a medically-induced See page 2 coma.
Sex slavers on trial By Matthew Elliott
WWW.EUROWEEKLYNEWS.COM
Train in vain A CONFUSED elderly woman thought to have escaped from an old people’s home caused an incident on Wednesday (December 7) which could have ended in
tragedy, but luckily resulted in nothing more than late arrival of the Madrid-Almeria train. The woman had been spotted wandering on the rails. See page 10
Feeling ratty ALMERIA Council’s socialist group representative Juan Carlos Perez Navas has urged those in charge to do something about the sorry state of the city’s Pescaderia district and knock down abandoned, ruined homes which are putting local residents’ health at risk. Ruins, which are full of rubbish and attract rats, mice and all sorts of insects, are posing a See page 14 serious health risk to those who live nearby. €1,800 for the ‘privilege’ of staying at the accommodation and were entirely reliant on their captors, who seized their passports on arrival, leaving them as penniless illegal immigrants with nowhere else to turn. Having arrived in Alicante on a tourist visa, the girls were shuttled down to Almeria, dispersed among different gang-controlled strip clubs and forced to satisfy local figures and businessmen, none of whom have yet been named.
The operation was discovered when one girl miraculously managed to get herself back to Russia where she secured protection and reported the atrocities taking place across Almeria. Different managers of the clubs face prison sentences of 33 years if found guilty, while lower tier members of the gang will be handed terms ranging from one to 25 years. The provincial court now begins 20 intense sessions, with the final judgment due in the New Year.
Fighting on BRITISH buyers of 94 illegally built homes in Zurgena’s Los Cabreras area have appealed a court sentence which found a former municipal architect guilty of
corrupt practice, and continue to fight to get their money back. The judge in charge of the case rejected their requests for damSee page 58 ages.