The Judicial Police (SP) detained this Friday two men and a woman from the same family, aged 35, 52 and 53, respectively, on suspicion of crimes of human trafficking for labor exploitation and slavery, in Castelo Branco. The 36-year-old woman was in slavery for 23 years.
For several years, the defendants have recruited frail people with economic needs and in a process of social exclusion and deceived them with promises of well-paid jobs on farms in Portugal and Spain, the JV said in a statement.
“They mediated with various employers in the supply of this type of labor, keeping the victims under control under threat and coercion, having at their disposal almost all the earnings they earned, by embezzling the money that the employers transferred to them for payment. wages,” adds PJ.
During the investigation in November 2022, a 36-year-old woman, who had been in slavery for 23 years, was rescued with a minor child. The woman lived in Castelo Branco in an annex to the house of suspects in inhuman conditions.
The operation, carried out by the SP, was aimed at finding and apprehending the suspects.
According to the same source, the detainees were taken to the judicial authorities for the first interrogation, to which a measure of restraint in the form of detention was applied.