Cremona: Human Trafficker Arrested

La morning of January 23rd, the Carabinieri of the Investigative Unit of the Operational Department of Cremona, together with those of the Cremona Station, have given execution of a European arrest warrant issued by the Court of Dolj (Romania) against a 31-year-old man, wanted because he was already the subject of a preventive arrest warrant as he was considered responsible for human trafficking.

The investigation began with the Carabinieri of Cremona in February 2021 when a missing person report was filed for a woman who, according to a relative, was the victim of exploitation of prostitution in an apartment by a fellow countryman living in Cremona. The Carabinieri had carried out an immediate check, confirming the presence in that house not only of the woman reported as missing, but also of another compatriot.

Conducted in the barracks, the two women had confirmed that they were victims of exploitation of prostitution by two compatriots, including the 31-year-old, who had brought them to Italy in the second half of December 2020, paying for their plane tickets and moving them to several locations in northern Italy until they reached Cremona.

Following their complaints, an investigation was launched which allowed the identification of the advertisements published on specialized websites and the identification of the clients, who confirmed that they had used the paid services of the two women. After the necessary checks, the two exploiters were reported to the Judicial Authority for exploitation of prostitution and private violence.

In the meantime, given that the exploiters had threatened the women's families in Romania, the Romanian Judicial Authority had been informed of the incident and had in turn started its investigations. In fact, the two women had been recruited in Romania and brought to Italy by the two men that the Romanian Judicial Authority had investigated for human trafficking, a crime committed in Romania.

At the end of last October, a preventive arrest warrant had been issued against the 31-year-old, but he had not been found in Romania. As a result, in mid-November, a European arrest warrant was issued and the Carabinieri of Cremona, who carried out the investigations, were informed. The man had been searched in his home and in other places he usually frequented, but had not been located.

It seemed like he had moved elsewhere, instead On the morning of January 23, the Carabinieri of the Nucleus accompanied her to the Cremona prison where she is at the disposal of the Court of Appeal of Brescia which will have to decide on her extradition to Romania..