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Three people have been apprehended for trafficking in women on the island of Corfu and the other 9, including Bulgarian nationals, who are involved in the women-trafficking channel detected on the island will testify before the investigator today.

Those involved in the channel operated in nightclubs on Corfu. As pimps, they offered customers the sexual services of women from Hungary and Bulgaria who arrived in Greece with the help of their collaborators in the respective countries. Subsequently, under the guise of waitresses or customers of the establishments, the women were forced into prostitution in favour of the channel members.

According to the announcement of the police station in Corfu, on 24 September police officers broke up a criminal group involving 25 people. During the operation, they apprehended 16 people aged between 21 and 60, 11 of them being Greek citizens and the remaining 5 foreigners from Ethiopia, Romania, Albania and Russia. The detainees also involved three employees of Corfu municipality and two local businessmen, the owners of nightclubs. Three channel members have been arrested so far, including both the businessmen and an Albanian citizen.

The police communication states the example of a 29-year-old woman from Bulgaria, the victim of one of the participants in the channel, also a Bulgarian citizen. Officially, the woman worked in a nightclub on the island and one of the Bulgarian citizens involved in the case systematically raped her.

The channel members were looking for customers of the services of their victims among tourists in different villages on Corfu, persuading them to visit their establishments. During the six-month-long investigation, the police detected two cases of trading in prostitution involving some of the detainees.

During the investigation, the authorities also found out that three employees of Corfu municipality had received bribes to issue at least two licences for the opening of establishments.

Furthermore, two of the participants in the channel, Albanian citizens aged 28 and 40, had robbed in early September a 24-year-old Greek citizen working in the restaurant of some of the detainees, stealing 1,500 euro from her.

While inspecting the detainees’ homes the police officers have found the following:

three hunting rifles without a possession licence,

one pistol with a magazine and five cartridges,

one air gun,

3.47 million roubles and 2,794 euro,

electronic devices,

two boxes of ampoules containing anabolic steroids,

about 70 grams of a substance of unknown composition

an official stamp of Corfu municipality and a number of other stamps,

medical certificates signed by doctors, blank documents for discharge from hospital, 44 medical certificates issued by doctors of various specialties, as well as other items.

The inspections in the nightclubs in question established that three foreign women and one Greek citizen worked there in violation of labour laws.