22 people arrested for extorting and threatening clients of prostitutes through the 'sicario scam'

The Civil Guard has dismantled a criminal group that was dedicated to

and has arrested 22 people and investigated another 18.

The

has made it possible to uncover at least

, the one in which victims are threatened with sending a hitman to their homes if they do not make an economic payment.

The origin of this investigation lies in a

when a person told the agents that he had requested the sexual services of a prostitute over the internet.

A few days later, she began to receive threats by phone and through mobile messages, demanding money in exchange for not sending a hitman to her home.

These people, through different web pages, initiated contacts with women in order to obtain a sexual service.

Then they began to receive

, both in cash and by bank transfer, if they did not want them to send a hitman.

To give their claims credibility, the authors thoroughly investigated the private lives of the victims, while those now detained and investigated took

.

They also sent the victims

, as well as videos of hooded people holding firearms.

The threatening calls came from phone numbers originating from both Spain and the Dominican Republic, with people with Latin American accents making threatening tones.

In order for this criminal group to get hold of the cash of the victims, they

.

Once the mules received the money from the victims, they made cash withdrawals at ATMs to hand-deliver it to one of the organization's leaders, receiving financial compensation in return.

The criminal group

.

So far, investigators have located 65 victims in numerous municipalities throughout the national territory.

During the operation, the Civil Guard discovered that the authors had tried to obtain more than 110,000 euros,

.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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