MADRID, July 4 (Xinhua) -- Spanish police have taken part in an operation which led to the arrest of 34 people and the liberation of 13 women who had been forced to work as prostitutes on the south coast of Spain.
The Spanish National Police force confirmed that 24 of the arrests were carried out in Spain with another eight in Bulgaria as part of the joint operation between Spanish and Bulgarian police forces which was coordinated by Europol and Eurojust.
The gang recruited young women in Bulgaria with the promise of work and then brought them to Spain where they were forced to work as prostitutes in the town of Puerto Banus, an expensive resort neighboring the town of Marbella.
The police communique highlights that women with young children were "especially sensitive" to the gang's way of working as those who refused to work were "violently attacked and their family members in Bulgaria were threatened with harm."
As well as working as prostitutes, the women were forced to steal valuables and credit cards from their clients and police added that they suspected they sometimes drugged their victims in order to facilitate the robberies.
The operation lasted almost three years, beginning in September 2014 based on information from a Bulgarian woman who told police in Marbella she had escaped from the gang.
Subsequent investigations uncovered "an enormous international network that operated mainly in Spain and Bulgaria, and whose aim was to achieve the total control of prostitution on the coast of Marbella."
Six residences and 18 vehicles have also been seized and numerous bank accounts have been blocked by investigators, police added.
