Nigerian woman using death threats to turn Nigerian girls into sex slaves arrested in Italy

Polizia di Stato, the Italian state police, has arrested an unnamed Nigerian woman for using ‘juju’ rituals and death threats to coerce girls into prostitution.

The police said that the suspect recruited young women in Nigeria then sent them to Italy for a prostitution career and a life of slavery.

“The policemen of the Mobile Teams of Syracuse and Foggia arrested a Nigerian woman accused of the crimes of human trafficking, enslavement, aggravated by having also acted to the detriment of minors, aiding illegal immigration, exploitation of prostitution as well as self-laundering of the proceeds of illegal activity,” the state police stated.

“The girls suffered death threats to themselves and their families and contracted a debt of about 30 thousand euros. Thanks to the strong power of intimidation deriving from the submission to the ‘Ju-Ju’ rite, a variant of the voodoo rite, the suspect was able to convince the young women to escape from the reception centers, where they were placed after arriving in Italy.

“The investigation began after the complaint of a young migrant who had just arrived in our country, who, unaware of the fate that awaited her, and only after being subjected to physical and psychological violence by the ‘guards’ during her stay in Libya, decided to ask the police for help.”

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According to investigators, the trafficking suspect facilitated at least eight girls’ travels. She also enabled the prostitution of two other girls in the national territory.

The suspect had accomplices in Nigeria and Libya who managed the girls in the various passages on their way to Italy.

“In Nigeria, an employee in the recruitment and submission of the ju-ju of the victims, and a travel care officer, who was responsible for receiving the sums necessary from the suspect to pay the ‘smugglers’ (intermediaries) for the services they provided, such as buying food or managing relationships with the right people who can better and faster meet boarding requests [sic],” said the police.

“Among other things, the investigators also shed light on the numerous transactions of money, proceeds of prostitution, from Italy to Nigeria, which the woman, apparently without sources of income, would have been able to send, over time, using the banking services of other compatriots or through an untraceable system of informal banking.

“The money transferred came to the accomplices and was used to be invested in new trips and for real estate purchases in Nigeria.”

There are at least 70,000 prostitutes working in Italy. Prostitution is not illegal in Italy, neither is it regulated, but trafficking and modern slavery are. Italy’s Legislative Decree No. 24 of March 2014 criminalises placing a person in conditions of slavery or servitude and the sale and purchase of slavery.

The Global Slavery Index states that Nigerians are the most common migrant group at risk of being exploited in Italy’s sex industry.FIJ