Marilena Lopez, Antonella Albanese, Elisabetta Manzari and Federica De Vito (the youngest is 21 years old, the oldest 35) are the 4 women arrested this morning at dawn on charges of having set up a child prostitution ring luxury b&b between the provinces of Bari and Bat, taking advantage of three young 16-year-old students from Bari. Two men also in handcuffs, Ruggero Doronzo and Nicola Basile (young men from Bari aged 29 and 25). The charges are those of inducing, abetting, exploiting, managing and organizing the prostitution of three underage girls, deriving a large profit from the sexual services offered, for a fee, to a plurality of customers.
For two clients, a lawyer and an entrepreneur aged 47 and 42, aware that the girls were underage, they did not hesitate to have sexual relations with them in exchange for money, and were placed under house arrest. For a third customer, aged 55, the obligation to live in the municipality of residence. The same precautionary measure was ordered against a 45-year-old from Bari, manager of an accommodation facility in which he tolerated the habitual practice of prostitution.
With the necessary premise that these are investigations carried out in the preliminary investigation phase, which require subsequent procedural verification in the cross-examination with the defense, the investigations were started by the Bari Flying Squad, in March 2022, following the complaint presented by the mother of a 16-year-old, who noticed anomalous behavior in her daughter and found her frequenting an adult, described by public opinion as an escort operating in the Marche region.
The stalking, the stakeouts, the wiretaps, a plurality of interviews, including those of the minors involved in prostitution, carried out with the help of psychologists, made it possible to acquire the investigative elements that led to the police operation carried out this morning. The events took place in some accommodation facilities, including luxury ones, in the provinces of Bari and BAT, starting from October 2021. The minors, 16 at the time, were lured and introduced into the world of prostitution with the promise , found to be easy to earn, considering that some customers have paid hundreds of euros for single sexual services.
The money earned through prostitution was used by the girls to buy clothes, bags and dine in expensive restaurants, taking precautions to avoid letting their relatives discover their considerable financial resources and the purchases made. To manage the activity, dedicated telephone numbers were used, inserted in specific 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, setting up appointments. The adults arrested and the 29-year-old exploiter from Bari waited in adjacent rooms for the minors to finish their services, to personally receive the money from the clients and pay the girls their share, corresponding to 50% of the sum received. It is important to underline that the proceeding is in the preliminary investigation phase and that, following the execution of today’s precautionary measure, the guarantee interrogation and the discussion with the defense of the suspects will follow, whose possible guilt, in relation to the crimes contested, must be ascertained during the trial, in the cross-examination between the parties.
