The number of victims of the web of sexual blackmail dismantled in February of last year by the Guardia Civil in the Operation Lubido-Hezurra is about 4,000. So what stands out a writing submitted by the holder of the magistrate Court 3, Teruel, Jerónimo Cano, to the Supreme Court to raise a question of jurisdiction and that it is the National court which is in charge of the cause, precisely because of the high number of people affected, and their extension to “the practical totality of the national territory”.
The summary, which remains largely secret, has over 25 volumes, and in him are imputed to a thirty of people, among them the footballer of the Lift Toño. The two alleged ringleaders, Ismael Bousnina, alias Saves, and Massinissa Ferrah, Erik, remain in detention since their arrest in the prison of Teruel. In the case will investigate crimes of extortion, threats against the privacy of people, misrepresentation documentary, theft, money laundering and criminal organization.
The plot of sextortion now under investigation is described by the Civil Guard in one of the first built-in reports the cause as “an organised criminal group” dedicated to the sexual blackmail people they had hired or tried to hire the services of prostitutes through the web pasion.com. The researchers gathered in the police document that the network could carry on acting “even years” and spoke of “hundreds or thousands of victims”, although still no achievement.
The Guardia Civil pointed out that the alleged members of the same had “an activity extorsionadora compulsive and predatory on victims, who —in fear of being discovered by family and couples their regular consumption or occasional sexual services— carried out disbursements of varying amounts to one or several occasions.” To achieve its objectives, the network threat to the victims and send their addresses to the alleged members of a group mafia of Eastern Europe to give them a beating, or even killing them if they paid. “In half an hour I want my money and if not I will beat you two shots in the leg”, you say to a man who claimed to 450 euros.
‘Mules’ to collect
“it Is this fear of an evil that they believe feasible that manages to paralyze victims and entails the payment of the sums requested, as a result, to overcome, in some cases, several thousands of euros”, highlights several reports of the Guardia Civil, which reflect the case of a victim who handed over to the network to 25,000 euros. When were the first arrests, the searches indicated already that the network of sexual blackmail had gotten a booty of “hundreds of thousands of euros”. To collect these amounts, the alleged extortionists had been assembled a network of accounts in the name of straw purchasers to raise the money without which they could connect them to the blackmail. Through the family of the troubled neighborhood of valencia for The Comma, coordinating a network of mules, people who lend their bank accounts to receive revenue in exchange for a small commission: of each 1,000 euros, 50 were for the coordinator and other 50 for the mule. The money was withdrawn immediately from the account, most of the time without leaving even the trace of a card, but by using a code. One of those involved came to move “in a few months,” more than 250,000 euros, of which 233.000 came out right away to open accounts for people with passport from Malawi, that the researchers suspect are fake.
The Civil Guard knew of the existence of the plot in April 2018, when one of the victims reported at the headquarters of Sarrión (Teruel) after you see that, despite the payment of a first payment, the extortion did not stop. “There will be consequences and your family will find out,” he threatened. In the following months, other six neighbours in the same province, denounced similar facts and, shortly after, the searches were extended to Navarra, Castellón or Guipuzkoa, where appeared new victims. The first investigations pointed as the source of the blackmail sexual the province of Valencia, where were the bank branches where the plot had opened the accounts to receive the money. Ten months after they were arrested as alleged ringleaders, two twentysomethings from valencia, Saves and Erik.
The judge Cano already tried the last year that the National court would be in charge of the investigation to the view of “the magnitude of the cause”, but then the holder of the Central Court of Instruction 4, José Luis Calama, rejected the inhibition, with the support of the office of the Prosecutor, considering that it was not competent because it was not accredited, “the existence of a generality of people affected” by the illegal activities of the network of extortion. Therefore, the judge of Teruel was addressed by the past December 3, the Supreme Court to raise a question of jurisdiction, and decide what body should, finally, be in charge of the investigation, according to confirmed yesterday the high Court of Justice of Aragon.
The main argument of the judge Cano is that the research conducted up to the time encrypted as in “a total of approximately 4,000 potential harmed located in practically the whole of the national territory” to the victims of the network of sextortion.
