On 9 April 2024, following the investigative activities coordinated by this Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Carabinieri of the Caltagirone Company, with the support of the Companies of Agrigento, Catania, Milazzo and Patti, executed a precautionary measure order issued by the Judge for Preliminary Investigations at the Court of Caltagirone, against 9 people (2 in prison, 2 under house arrest and 5 subject to the obligation to report daily to the judicial police, of which 3 are also subject to a residence ban in the Municipality of Caltagirone)in relation to the crimes of criminal association, aiding and abetting and exploitation of prostitution.
At the same time, the real precautionary measure was carried out preventive seizure of two real estate properties located in the center of Caltagirone, used as real “houses of prostitution”.
The investigation called “My love” – the name with which the victims called their customers -, conducted in the period between June and December 2021 by the Carabinieri of the Operational Section of the NORM of Caltagirone, both through technical activities and through traditional investigative approaches such as the flattening and shadowing of the investigated, would have allowed the acquisition of serious and consistent circumstantial elements regarding a criminal organization dedicated to the recruitment of women from South America – mostly from Colombia -, aged between approximately 25 and 40 years, induced into prostitution .
In particular, as a result of the investigative activity, the organizational methods with which the suspects would have taken care of all the functional aspects of carrying out the prostitution activity were reconstructed, from logistical support to marketing on the sites online.
At the head of the association were two women from Colombia, also dedicated to prostitution, who would have brought the prostitutes to the Catania airport, where other co-suspects would have taken care of picking them up and taking them to the two houses located in the town center of Caltagirone , two real ones “dating houses” made available by the owners – further suspects and competitors in the currently contested crimes, perfectly aware of the destination of said premises – so much so that in addition to tolerating the continuous coming and going of customers, they would also have taken care to guarantee clean linen at each arrival of new girl.
Here the victims, according to a well-established rotation system, would have remained for only a week, then moving, usually on Monday, to other Sicilian municipalities including Messina, Trapani, Palermo and Agrigento, both to guarantee customers frequent turnover, than to avoid the attention of the police.
During their stay in Caltagirone, the two organizers, making use of the collaboration of the other participants in the association, always to encourage and facilitate the exploitation of prostitution, would then manage all the daily and basic needs of their prostitutes, accompanying them to commercial establishments or agencies of shipments, as well as carrying out telephone top-ups and paying bills, all for a fee. In addition to the payment of these services, the women engaged in prostitution would have been forced both to give up part of the revenues deriving from the “work activity” and to pay a daily fee to the organization, which was between 50 and 100 Euros and which it would also have served ascanon” for accommodation in the aforementioned apartments.
In fact, the two foreigners, now confined in prison following the precautionary measure just carried out, allegedly withheld the money deriving from the victims’ prostitution, partly for themselves, partly for the organisation, named by all the suspects as well as by the victims “cadena”, thus obtaining illicit profits from the exploitation of the prostitution of others.
The investigations, conducted over a period of approximately 7 months, would have made it possible to ascertain a large flow of customers, proving the widespread knowledge, in the city of Caltagirone, of the presence of the two “dating houses”. From what has been ascertained, in fact, numerous announcements onlinepublished on various sites web of meetings, concerning the girls who arrived in Caltagirone, whose inclusion was handled by the two Colombians at the head of the criminal group.
In conclusion, at the end of today’s execution of the ordinance, which involved a detailed intervention by the Carabinieri in the areas of Caltagirone, Catania, Agrigento and in some municipalities in Messina, the two properties where the illicit prostitution activity, and one of the 2 women under investigation was taken to prison; 2 men from Caltagirone were instead placed under house arrest, while 5 subjects were subjected to the precautionary measure of the obligation to report daily to the judicial police, of which 2 spouses from Caltagirone and 3 residents in other municipalities. Furthermore, the precautionary measure of the residence ban in the Municipality of Caltagirone was also applied to the latter three. The search for one of the two suspects at the head of the criminal organization is still underway.
