Colombian authorities arrested Mexican Cristóbal Paulino Fernández Viamonte in Medellín, who is one of the most wanted men in his country for human trafficking for sexual exploitation, local police reported on Wednesday.
Fernández was arrested when he was leaving “his daily sports routine” in a shopping center in Medellín and is wanted by Mexico for the crimes of aggravated human trafficking and aggravated sexual exploitation, the police detailed in a statement.
Authorities had been following his trail for more than 90 days because, according to the police, he was recruiting women from Medellín, Bogotá and the department of Valle del Cauca, many of them with “scarce resources or in vulnerable situations,” to deceive and sexually exploit them.
“It was also discovered that the members of the organization were given a financial incentive to recruit women and later to convince them to travel as escorts and waitresses to Cancun and Merida in the state of Yucatan in Mexico,” he added.
Once they arrived in the North American country, they were taken to safe houses where they took away all their documents and then “forced them to sign a contract” in which they “imposed a debt that was impossible to pay with expenses that were not agreed upon when they left Colombia in order to keep them enslaved.”
“When they saw these acts of infamy and degradation towards them, they looked for a way to escape to the Mexican consulates or authorities to seek repatriation procedures and thus flee from the criminal networks of Cristóbal Paulino Fernández Viamonte,” the Police detailed.
According to the police investigation, the detainee had been living in Medellin for more than four years and passed himself off as an “ostentatious businessman” who lived in a luxurious country house.
Fernández was placed at the disposal of the Prosecutor’s Office pending his extradition to Mexico. (EFE)
Source: aristeguinoticias
