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80% drop in revenue from prostitution, pimps complain to Greek police

30 November 2011 / 14:11:20  GRReporter
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There is an 80% drop in paid dating, announced the Greek police after an investigation held by the Organized crime control office and trade in human flesh. According to the confessions of detainees from the 'pink circles', there were about 15 agencies for paid girls in Athens two years ago and they had tens of thousands of clients. The number of meetings arranged a day ranged between 120 and 150, and the girls were numerous. The average revenue of prostitution per day in an agency ranged between € 8-10,000 and the girls numbered at least 20-30.

Cuts in wages, rising unemployment and the general indebtedness of the average Greek, however, have weakened the interest of ordinary clients to paid love. Agencies’ turnover has fallen substantially, and people had to follow the folk wisdom that "when in need a man sleeps with his wife." After the height of the economic crisis, only about five official agencies offering paid love services have remained. Their "staff" is significantly reduced and the revenues are about € 200-600 per day.

After the last action of the Human trafficking control department part of the Organized crime control office in Attica 15 people were arrested, who are at the heart of the illegal trade group for human flesh. They were charged with involvement in a criminal group, people trafficking, legalization of proceeds of criminal activities, terrorist financing, as well as violations of the law on personal data protection, of the law on tax evasion, the law on drugs and foreign nationals. One of the pimps spoke and said that several months ago, earnings per day were between € 600-800, but with the deepening of the crisis, they had fallen to € 250-300.

It is not clear how much this pimp’s story of the rise and fall of revenue from prostitution has moved the Athens police, but the investigation will continue until they find a 61-year-old woman, who has headed the entire operation and is still missing.

The Greek edition Zougla cites the names of George Gavalakis and Zoe Damaskou as key players in the trade in white slaves. The business involved the two children of Mrs. Damaskou - her son Anastasios Nikas, who drove the girls to their hourly meetings with the clients and her daughter Eleni Nikas, who answered the phones in the "office" and apparently, approved the schedule of prostitutes. A key role in the company was played by Zaur Mustafagef, who "recruited" girls from the former communist countries and the Balkans, and the accountant of the entire operation was a young freelance economist, Halarambos Paleologos. Drivers are taxi driver George Papadakis, Evangelos Paraskevopoulos, Silvios Margaritis, Dimitris Kolasis, Arkanti Kalatian and pensioners Anastasios Atavaskos and George Matioulakis.

The investigation began about four months ago, when the Moscow department of Interpol contacted their Greek colleagues in relation to the discovery of a channel for human trafficking. Members of the organization attracted women to work abroad, using their vulnerability and the hard economic situation to persuade them to come to the country and make money starting a decent job as house cleaners, waitresses, etc. Once the women arrived in Greece, they were faced with a completely different reality, and were forced into prostitution.

A 27-year-old Russian girl tells about how she came to Greece to find a normal job. Zaur Mustafagef had said he would help her and had sent her to an "employment agency" in Thessaloniki. There, the woman was kept locked up and systematically raped for three weeks. She had neither legal documents, nor acquaintances or family in Greece. After they returned her to Athens, they told her that the only way to raise money and to legalize her stay was to start working at the agency with driver Dimitris Kolasis, nicknamed Dima. Her tariff ranged between € 80 and € 120 per session, from which € 30 remained for her, € 20 were paid to the driver and the rest entered the treasury of the agency. The girl was arrested along with the pimps, but after checking her story, the police released her. Now, she is housed in a NGO shelter for women victims of violence in Athens.

 

Tags: Crime newsProstitutionHuman traffickingViolationAthens
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