Spanish police have freed around 600 Russian sex slaves during a series of raids on brothels across the country

Spanish police have freed around 600 Russian sex slaves during a series of raids on brothels across the countryThe women had been lured to Spain by human traffickers promising lucrative work as fruit pickers, but instead had been forced to work in the sex industry, police sources said.“They were fooled into believing they were coming to work in the greenhouses or to pick strawberries,” Jose Nieto, chief inspector of the specialized immigration and criminal networks unit of the national police, told the Spanish newspaper El Pais.But once in Spain, the girls were put to work in the brothels. “The girls were told that the ring would go after their families in Russia, and also put the false notion in their heads that the Spanish police had been bought off and would laugh if they filed a complaint,” said Mr Nieto.
Under Operation Zarpa, the biggest police operation against prostitution to date, 26 establishments were raided, the majority in the Almeria region of southern Spain, and 99 people were arrested.But sources told local media that the busts were the “tip of the iceberg” and that the crime ring possibly had as many as 10,000 women working against their will.