With a few hours to go before a political delegation from the European Union lands in the Balearic Islands tomorrow to find out about cases of exploitation and sexual abuse of minors in care, a new case breaks out in the archipelago.
The National Police has arrested three people for keeping or mediating in the abuse of a minor from a guardianship center in exchange for money and gifts.
She is one more victim in a network that, according to police sources, even asked some of the victims to participate in pornographic filming.
The people detained so far are a 43-year-old man of British origin, another 20-year-old man of Ecuadorian origin and a minor girl who is accused of recruiting other minors whom she knew from the protection system.
She was the one who allegedly put adults and minors in contact, girls in some cases under 16 years of age.
This is one more episode in a long and complex investigation carried out by the Family Unit of the National Police in the Balearic Islands, which last summer already charged for the arrest of 15 people and subsequently the arrest of at least two other individuals, one of them They are 71 years old.
Some of the cases date back more than two years but it is now that the victims have agreed to testify after intense police work and social services themselves.
In the last uncovered case, according to police sources, the alarms went off when staff from the Consell de Mallorca (which has delegated powers in the guardianship of minors) detected the strange and suspicious behavior of one of the girls under guardianship.
The minor had disappeared several times and the guardians of the centers alerted the authorities.
They also found indications that people outside the centers were participating in a possible plot of sexual exploitation.
The Police identified the minor victim and reinstated her in the guardianship center.
The agents found out that she had suffered sexual abuse from several men, in some cases while she was in a state of unconsciousness due to drug use.
In addition, the police investigation verified that she had been captured by another minor who had already participated in other cases that are being investigated.
The pattern repeats.
Minors are exploited by adults using the criminal figure known as 'sugar daddy'.
That is, they are abused in exchange for money or gifts of considerable value.
Some of the girls, according to sources in the investigation, were even offered to participate in a pornographic film.
Some girls from the environment of the centers or with friends inside are being investigated for carrying out liaison work, even charging money for it.
The analysis of the mobile phones of those involved and the messages exchanged with the minors is essential for the investigation.
In the case now revealed, relationships were proposed to the minor by showing her pornographic videos.
A statement has been taken from another person, another 28-year-old man of Ecuadorian origin who is not in custody.
The operation remains open and new arrests are not ruled out.
The Mallorcan Institute of Social Affairs (IMAS), dependent on the Consell, has reacted by pointing out that their complaints have once again been "key" in the police operation.
From this public institution they report that the events now under investigation began to occur in 2019 and that it is now that those involved have been identified.
In addition, they defend the intense cooperation between the Consell and the police forces, improved after the outbreak of the first cases two years ago now.
And it is that the scandal of sexual exploitation of protected minors in the Balearic Islands has been going on for more than two years.
Specifically since the Police received the complaint of an alleged gang rape of a minor under guardianship on Christmas Eve 2019.
That complaint transcended and the local media, including EL MUNDO, revealed the existence of repeated cases of exploitation of minors by people outside the system of protection and guardianship of minors.
The Prosecutor's Office initially opened an investigation but filed it away as it did not detect any evidence that there was an organized network with people who cooperated within the institutions.
He announced that he would continue to investigate the cases separately, calling them "extremely serious", but ruling out the existence of an organized criminal structure.
However, the National Police continued with their investigations.
A little less than a year ago, he dealt the first blow to a group of people who recruited girls using the crucial cooperation of other minors (some already adults when they were arrested) who put the minors in contact with the exploiters.
Within the framework of this investigation, new arrests are now taking place, which are being investigated under strict secrecy in the Courts.
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