According to a report by the BBC, an unnamed famous Nigerian DJ has been arrested for his connection to a notorious Nigerian gang responsible for the trafficking of 39 women and girls who were smuggled from Nigeria into Spain and forced into sex work.
The officers rescued the trafficked victims who had reportedly been intimidated with voodoo threats and kept in “squalid conditions in caves”. 88 other people have been arrested in connection to the gang as members are believed to force the victims into sex work in order to pay off a N15 million (€30,000; $37,000; £26,000) debt incurred from smuggling them from Nigeria to Spain via Libya and Italy.
Investigations into the gang had started after an underage victim filed a complaint with the police, saying she had been pressured into trafficking by voodoo threats made in Nigeria. With the gang allegedly operating all over the world, Europol’s operation was carried out with police from the United Kingdom and Nigeria as 41 houses were searched in 11 Spanish cities and one city in the UK.
The criminal gang has been linked with the Eiye brotherhood, one of the most influential groups in Nigeria, and Europol describes it as one of the biggest trafficking busts in Europe.