14 arrested for trafficking young Nigerians into sex work (9)

(ANSA) - Catania, June 12 - Italian police on Friday arrested 14 people, mostly Nigerians, on charges of trafficking Nigerian girls, some of them minors, into sex work in Italy.
    Ten of the arrests took place in Sicily and the northern cities of Verona, Novara and Mondovì.
    The gang allegedly used "connection men" in Libya, police said.
    Police said the trafficking victims were promised steady jobs and a good life in Italy.
    They were then threatened by a "witch doctor" in their home villages who used voodoo rites to get them to promise to pay back the 25,000 euros they each paid to get to Italy, police said.
    The young women and girls crossed the Mediterranean from Libya in boats that were picked up by rescue ships, and then re-assembled in Sicily, police said.
    They were pressed into prostitution and sent around Italy.
    Their earnings were sent back to the witch doctor in Nigeria to be distributed around the gang and pay for more recruits, police said.