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Parents arrested over selling daughter for a van and €5,000

The Spanish Civil Guard has arrested parents who are suspected of selling their 14-year-old daughter for €5,000 and a van.

Published: 21 June 2017 16:18 CEST

Parents arrested over selling daughter for a van and €5,000

A Spanish Civil Guard patrol car. Photo: Outisnn / Wikimedia Commons.

As El Pais reported on Wednesday, the investigation began on April 19th after the parents from Pedrera in fact reported their daughter missing.

After taking statements from various witnesses, the Civil Guard started to suspect that the girl had possibly been sold by her parents, who are Romanian, to another Romanian man who was living in Lucena del Puerto.

The Civil Guard then started to search for the girl, first within Spain, then elsewhere in Europe, until they were able to locate her in Obrežje, Slovenia.

The girl was found travelling towards Romania with an older man with the initials V.M., whose father allegedly bought her. Investigators believe that the man’s father had arranged with the girl’s parents to buy her for his son, in exchange for €5,000 and a van.

Sources close to the case told El Pais that the parents only went to the police after the buyer did not pay out the total amount they wanted.

The Civil Guard was then able bring the girl back to Spain.

The agents then requested from Spanish judicial authorities a European order to detain V.M., who was then arrested in Romania in May. He faces charges of human trafficking, sexual abuse of a minor under 16, and inducing a minor to abandon home.

The girl’s parents as well as the father of V.M. have also been arrested and charged with human trafficking.

Dutch gang leader vanishes in Spain after accidental release

Karim Bouyakhrichan was arrested in January in Marbella, an upmarket tourist resort on Spain’s southern coast, along with five other members of the Mocro Maffia gang.

They are suspected of having bought 172 properties in Spain worth over €50 million ($53.5 million) to launder their gains from drug trafficking.

But the following month a court in the southern city of Málaga decided to grant him provisional release with judicial supervision, against the wishes of public prosecutors and the Spanish government. Judicial sources said Tuesday his whereabouts are now unknown.

“It is worrying news,” Justice Félix Bolaños told a news conference following a weekly cabinet meeting when asked about the case.

“I can’t comment on any court decisions, but I do trust that the state security forces will bring this person to justice as soon as possible,” he added.

The Málaga court said in its ruling granting Bouyakhrichan provisional release that the risk that he would flee could be avoided “with other less burdensome security measures” than pre-trial detention.

It imposed bail of €50,000, took away his passport and ordered him to report to the authorities twice a month.

Dutch extradition bid

At the same time Spain’s top criminal court was processing a request for Bouyakhrichan’s extradition to the Netherlands, where he is wanted for large-scale drug trafficking.

But it postponed its extradition proceedings because the Málaga court intended to put Bouyakhrichan on trial first for money laundering, court sources told AFP.

When the Netherlands provided more information to back its extradition request, the top court summoned him to testify and when he failed to appear a fresh warrant for his arrest was issued.

Vincent Veenman, a spokesman at the Dutch public prosecutor’s office in The Hague, said it was “unknown” to them why Bouyakhrichan had not been detained for extradition.

“We are currently awaiting a decision on the extradition request,” he added.

“Our experience with the Spanish justice system is that this cooperation is generally good. Dozens of suspects are handed over every year.”

Bouyakhrichan’s brother Samir, another leading member of the Mocro Maffia, was murdered in 2014 near Marbella, sparking a reorganisation of organised crime groups in the region.

The Mocro Maffia made international headlines in 2022 after it emerged that Dutch Crown Princess Amalia had been placed under heavy protection in response to fears of an attack by the group.

Dutch media reported earlier last week that the 20-year-old heir to the Dutch throne studied in Madrid after being forced to ditch plans to live in student accommodation in Amsterdam because of the threats.

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