SPANISH police have arrested 22 people on suspicion of using violence to force women into prostitution and tattooing them with bar codes as a sign of ownership.
Police are calling the gang the "bar code pimps."
Officers freed one 19-year-old woman who had been beaten, held against her will and tattooed with a bar code and an amount of money - 2000 euros ($2550) - which investigators believe was the debt the gang wished to extort before freeing her.
The woman claims to have been whipped, chained to a radiator and having had her hair and eyebrows shaved off as punishment from her illicit proprietor.
The Interior Ministry said all those arrested were of Romanian nationality and had forced the women to hand over part of their earnings.
The women were tattooed on their wrists. Police also seized guns and ammunition.
One of the suspected leaders of the prostitution ring, Iancu T, allegedly made false promises of legitimate work to women to ensnare them, only to force the women into prostitution in various clubs in Madrid.
According to CNN, Iancu called his prostitutes "packages," "suitcases" and "bicycles".
Sex trafficking is a multi-billion dollar industry in Spain. While pimping is outlawed, prostitution itself is unregulated. Most of the country prostitutes are poor immigrants from Africa, Eastern Europe and South America.
Info : Crime
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