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It was triggered by the complaint of a mother, determined to see clearly after the sudden change in attitude and mood of her minor daughter, the maxi operation of the Bari Police Headquarters against child prostitution which saw the agents of the Flying Squad of the capital involved this morning between Bari, Trani, Lecce and Rome.
The police carried out a precautionary measure against a total of ten people. Four women from Bari aged between 21 and 35, Marilena Lopez, Antonella Albanese, Federica Devito and Elisabetta Manzari, the 29-year-old from Barletta Ruggiero Doronzo and the 25-year-old Nicola Basile from Bari will have to answer for heavy charges of inducing, aiding and exploitation of prostitution of three underage girls, an activity from which they would have made huge profits.
Precautionary measures also apply to three clients, two of whom are from Lecce and the other from Trani: two of them, who, aware of the girls’ minor age, did not hesitate to engage in sexual intercourse in exchange for money, ended up under house arrest, while for the third, the obligation to reside in the municipality of residence was ordered. Same measure against another man from Bari, manager of an accommodation facility where prostitution activity was habitually carried out.
The investigations were started by the Flying Squad in March 2022 following the complaint presented by the mother of a 16-year-old, who had noticed anomalous behavior in her daughter and found her dating an adult, the latter described as an escort operating in the Marche region. Through stalking, stakeouts, wiretaps and a series of interviews, including those of the minors involved in prostitution, carried out with the help of psychologists, the investigative elements that led to the police operation were acquired.
The events took place in some hotels, including luxury ones, and B&Bs in the province of Bari, starting from October 2021. The minors, 16 at the time, were lured and introduced into the world of prostitution with the promise of easy earnings.
The money was used by the girls to buy clothes, bags and to dine in expensive restaurants, taking precautions to avoid letting their relatives discover the large sums and purchases made. To manage the business, dedicated telephone numbers were used, inserted in special online advertisements: there were those who booked the accommodation facilities, those who accompanied the girls to the rooms and those who received phone calls from customers and set up appointments. The 4 arrested women and the 2 exploiters from Bari and Barletta waited in adjacent rooms for the minors to finish their services to receive the money directly from the customers and pay the girls half of the sum received.
