The perpetrators exploited a victim under the age of 18 in Germany, as well as several other women.
The National Bureau of Investigation is conducting an investigation into the activities of three Kecskemét residents against several people, including persons under the age of eighteen, for the suspicion of trafficking in human beings and forced labor.
On the basis of the information currently available, Zsolt Árpád B. is suspected of having committed an offence with his partner, Anna Karolina Zs., at least in the period between August 2020 and December of 2021, having obtained illegal income by recruiting women, typically living in the eastern region of the country, who were in a vulnerable situation due to their financial, health and social circumstances, to work as prostitutes abroad, and then taking all or a significant part of the money they earned. While the man typically recruited, transported and supervised prostitutes – including one victim under the age of eighteen –, the woman, in addition to recruiting the victims, used her foreign contacts and German language skills to rent locations in Germany, post sexual advertisements and manage the so-called "advertising" phones, receiving calls and messages from clients who responded to the advertisements and thus coordinating the victims' activities.
The victims recruited and transported by the perpetrators worked in Germany for several weeks, during which they had to receive clients 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. During their stays abroad, they occasionally earned several million forints for the perpetrators. Anna Karolina Zs. recruited a young woman for sexual activities, knowing full well that she was under 18 years of age, and she tried to disguise this by presenting an ID card issued to an adult in Germany. Before being transported to Germany, the victims were deliberately prepared for work abroad, taken to hairdressers and hairdressers, bought lingerie and then told that the cost of this would be deducted from their wages – wages which they never received, or only received a small part of.
On the basis of incriminating evidence obtained during the investigation, in the morning hours of 17 April 2022, officers stopped Anna Karolina Zs. and her passengers. In the car she was driving, more than €7,000 in cash was found, which was seized together with the car.
After this, Zsolt Árpád B. and Ádám Ó. were also apprehended by the investigators near their residence in Kecskemét. During the searches, electronic data carriers, notes and pawn tickets were seized. The Anti-Trafficking Unit decided to seize a residential property in the context of an asset recovery operation.
Following their detainment, all three persons were questioned as suspects. They were taken into criminal custody, and at the same time a motion for their arrest was initiated at the Bács-Kiskun County Prosecutor's Office supervising the investigation.
The penalty for the offence of aggravated trafficking in human beings committed by the perpetrators is 5 to 10 years' imprisonment and 5 to 15 years' imprisonment.
Press release of the Police (in Hungarian): https://www.police.hu/hu/hirek-es-informaciok/legfrissebb-hireink/bunugyek/bilincsben-a-kecskemeti-emberkereskedelembol-elo