2023-10-08 15:57:05
LIMA (AP) — Peruvian police rescued 44 Asian citizens — 17 men and 27 women — held once morest their will by a criminal group from Taiwan in a large house in one of the most luxurious neighborhoods of the Peruvian capital.
Through its official account on the social network Police videos showed those captured with colorful tattoos that covered their entire back. When leaving the house, with shackles on their backs, the six captured hid their faces from the cameras of the local press.
Police indicated that the operation began on Saturday night and was still ongoing on Sunday. He detailed that the list of captives found in the luxury house were 17 men and 26 women originally from Malaysia, along with a woman from Taiwan.
The head of the anti-human trafficking division, General Carlos Malaver, told The Associated Press that the police’s initial hypothesis is that those detained were making extortion calls to Asian countries once morest their will.
“That might change, but that is what is being handled for the moment,” he indicated. He added that they will begin analyzing the cell phones of captured Taiwanese citizens.
Malaver said that the case became known following two women “escaped from the house” in the La Planicie urbanization, Lima’s La Molina district, where they were being held and notified the local police station. After talking with them using an internet translator, the case was transferred to the Human Trafficking division.
The police chief indicated that one of the main difficulties of the case was the language, since those investigated and the victims do not speak Spanish.
Agents from the human trafficking and migrant smuggling division found the Malaysian citizens crammed into interior rooms of the house. It was known that they were from that country because of their passports, which were also found in the mansion where they were being held. They all slept on mattresses on the floor, according to the images released by the police.
Local television stations that reached the exterior of the intervened mansion showed those held once morest their will boarding a police bus. A woman covered her face with a stuffed panda bear.
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