August 31, 2010 6:17 PM

Spain: Gang Plied Gigolos with Cocaine, Viagra

(AP)  Spanish police say that for the first time they have broken up a human-trafficking gang that brought men to the country to work as prostitutes, providing them with Viagra, cocaine and other stimulant drugs to be available for sex with other men 24 hours a day.

Authorities arrested 14 people, mainly Brazilians, on suspicion of running the organization and another 17 alleged prostitutes for being in Spain illegally, the National Police said in a statement Tuesday.

Police inspector Jose Nieto said the case involving the Brazilians was the first in which Spanish authorities dismantled a ring in which traffickers brought in men, rather than women, to toil as sex workers.

The victims, men in their 20s and estimated to number between 60 and 80, were mainly recruited in northern Brazil and saddled with debts of up to euro4,000 ($5,000) as the cost of bringing them to Spain.

Some were duped into thinking legitimate jobs awaited them as go-go dancers or models; others knew they would be working in the sex industry, but not that they had to be prepared for sex around the clock and would be moved from one province to another depending on demand for their services, Nieto told a news conference.

The men had to give half their earnings to the gang, and pay for rent and food in the apartments where they worked.

"If the men complained or caused any kind of problem, the gang leaders would threaten them, even with death," the police statement said.

The arrests were made in recent weeks and the alleged ringleader is a Brazilian based in Palma on the Mediterranean island of Mallorca.

Besides Viagra and cocaine, the men were given marijuana and the club scene drug known as 'poppers', the police statement said.

Sex is a multibillion-dollar industry in Spain, with brothels staffed mainly by poor immigrant women from Latin America, Africa and eastern Europe lining highways just about everywhere and respectable daily newspapers brimming with ads from people selling their bodies. Prostitution falls in legal limbo: it is not regulated, although pimping is a crime.


© 2010 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Add a Comment
by tool105 September 1, 2010 6:24 AM EDT
hebitches??? I wounder if duce was among those arrested?
Reply to this comment
by rwsmith29456 August 31, 2010 11:09 PM EDT
Legitimate jobs as male 'go-go' dancers? Cripes.
Reply to this comment
by formrusmcsgt August 31, 2010 8:28 PM EDT
Prostitution falls in legal limbo: it is not regulated, although pimping is a crime.
---
As it should be.
Reply to this comment
by Dustin83v August 31, 2010 5:06 PM EDT
Underground porn also offers live internet shows of male prostitutes ritualistically killed, and then their corpses sodomized. Joran Vander Sloot is a key player in South American and South Asian black market web porn.
Reply to this comment
by Dustin83v August 31, 2010 4:48 PM EDT
Many men escape South America to Spain to avoid its underground snuff film industry. Male prostitutes are murdered, then their dead bodies sexually molested on internet downloads. The macabre world of necrophile videos features actual murders and defilement of the victims.
Reply to this comment
by Myopinion046 August 31, 2010 4:27 PM EDT
Gag me with a spoon and then some people!!!!!
Reply to this comment
.
Scroll Left
Scroll Right More »
CBS News on Facebook