At the end of an investigation that lasted more than eight years, Belgian police have uncovered a gigantic Sino-Belgian prostitution network which would have exploited a thousand young Chinese women in total. In Ghent, the Council Chamber on June 10, referred to a criminal court 38 defendants which will be tried in the fall, in particular for trafficking in human beings, pimping, laundering, false and use of false and belonging to a criminal organization.
Justice did not initially communicate on this file called “Lotus”, considered as “One of the most important in the country's judicial history” by a police source. It is now detailed and reveals the secrets the unprecedented magnitude of this organization. From a search carried out in June 2017 in Antwerp, the investigators discovered a sprawling structure which brought together several autonomous “cells” each directed by a chief and equipped with recruiters, drivers, employees of a call center to organize the appointments, as well as couriers responsible for conveying money and distributing condoms.
Myria, the Federal Center for Migration, was a civil party in this case which is not the first to affect foreign prostitution networks but, for sure, the most spectacular. The dismantled organization would also be part of a larger set, managed from a Spanish city (probably Barcelona, according to the daily Standaard which delivered details on the case on Saturday June 14) and endowed with ramifications in France, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic.
WeChat Chinese messaging use
The entry of the telephones of two prostitutes during the search of Antwerp in 2017, had indicated that they had been forced to work in Italy, Poland and Slovakia. In private apartments or airbnb rentals, which made it possible to escape police checks.
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Source: Lemonde