Trial requested for 26 people involved in the investigation into an association dedicated to the exploitation of prostitution, between Bulgaria and Italy. The “work stations” of the young women were also located near two shopping centers in the Brindisi area, on the coplanars of the highway, as emerged from the investigations.
The request bears the signature of the deputy prosecutor of the district anti-mafia directorate Giovanna Cannarile and of the colleagues of the ordinary prosecutor’s office Erika Masetti and Rosaria Petrolo and will be discussed in the preliminary hearing which will take place on February 12th, in the bunker room of the Borgo San prison Nicola, in front of judge Stefano Sala.
Among the first defendants on the “black” list drawn up by the investigators is Yanchev Anto Antov, a 53-year-old Bulgarian, known as “uncle”, believed to be at the head of the organization that would have done business with young compatriots who arrived in the Salento capital, who with the promise of a dignified and remunerative job, some because sold for a few hundred euros. In any case, the fate would have been common for all: to become “sex slaves” forced, with violence, to prostitute themselves on the street or in the man’s home.
There are 31 injured people identified in the proceedings who will be able to become civil parties in the proceedings that day and among these, there is also a fifteen-year-old who was made to believe that, upon arriving in Lecce, she would be employed in a commercial business, and instead she would be forced by the 53-year-old, to prostitute herself along the Lecce-Gallipoli provincial road and on one occasion raped her.
Often deprived of their identity documents or cell phones, the unfortunate women were forced to sell their bodies, even in the cold and on holidays, and to hand over the sums of money they had earned. Woe betide anyone who resists: humiliations and verbal threats accompanied by punches, slaps, sometimes even blows with a baseball bat and burns to the face with a gas lighter.
Therefore, the accusations already contained in the notice of conclusion of the investigations which concerned episodes that occurred from May 2021 until March 12th, the day of the raid with 22 arrests, do not change: criminal association, reduction or maintenance in slavery or servitude, trafficking in persons, aiding and abetting and exploitation of prostitution, exploitation of child prostitution, sexual violence, alteration of status, attempted extortion, kidnapping, personal injury, threat.
Fundamental to closing the circle were the observation services along the coplanar road of the 101 Gallipoli-Lecce state road, in the municipality of Sannicola, the environmental and telephone interceptions and the video recordings arranged during the investigations also in the 53-year-old’s home, in via Serafino Elmi, as well as a close exchange of information with the Bulgarian judicial authority.
The home: logistical base of the organization
The house would have been the tax domicile and place of business of the individual company “Antov Anto Yanchev” engaged in the trade of cars and light vehicles. If no evidence was found for this activity, the same could not be said for the prostitution activity. In the investigation papers, in fact, the residence is indicated as the logistical base of the criminal organization, functional both to welcome prostitutes arriving from Bulgaria and to host clients procured through web advertisements.
The list of 26 defendants
Here is the list of the 26 defendants who will have to attend the preliminary hearing on February 12: Yanchev Anto Antov, 53, known as “uncle”, his son, Yanchev Yanek Antov, 30, and his ex-daughter-in-law Mitkova Milena Yancheva, 28; Todoro Stefcho Avramov, 60; Panayotova Tsvetana Ristova, 50; Boyanov Kiril Kirchev, 49; Milenov Plamen Petrov, 21; Milenov Stefan Petrov, 24; Mitkova Trifonka Trifonova, 22; Danchov Ivan Tsekov, 36; Kiril Aleksandrov, 26; Linchko Samuilov, 24; Fidanova Kirilka Ivanova, 35; Alexander Borisov, 39; Danailov Ivan Georgiev, 34; Rosistsova Petya Naydenova, 30; All originally from Bulgaria; Gennaro Hajdari, 40, from Palermo but resident in the Panareo camp in Lecce; Luigi Ferrari, 51 years old, resident in Porto Cesareo.
These are the recipients of the precautionary custody order carried out on March 12th (as described in a previous article).
The list is completed by another eight people, for whom no precautionary measures were taken: Natalia Tsenkova Asenova, 28 years old; Zahariev Ventsislav Naydenov, 29; Tsvetanova Tsvetelina Petkova, 47; Francesco Ortensia, 84 years old, from Trepuzzi; Antonio Mega, 73, from Sannicola; Roberto Re, 82 years old, resident in Neviano; Luigi Specchia, 44, from Maglie; Maria Panayotova Velinova, 29, from Maglie.
Three other people involved in the same proceedings have already closed their accounts with the justice system, agreeing to two years and ten months of imprisonment, plus the payment of a fine of 2,200 euros, for the crime of aiding and exploitation of prostitution: Mariyanov Marchelo Chakarov , 30 years old, Andrianov Galin Iliev, 35 years old, and Kamenov Pepi Milchev, 32 years old.
The lawyers will defend the accused: Raffaele Benfatto, Luigi Corvaglia, Ladislao Massari, Simone Viva, Mario Blandolino, Aurelio Elia, Benedetto Scippa, Roberta Romano, Ivan Greco, Vito De Pascalis, Loredana Pasca, Cosimo D’Agostino, Antonio Savoia, Pasquale Scorrano, Antonio Giorgio Caroli and Silvio Caroli, Donato Amato, Armando Nicola Veneziano. All from the Lecce Bar. And again: Domenico Cantore of the Taranto Bar and Pasquale Fistetti of the Brindisi Bar.
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