Eleven Girls Were Forced to Work as Prostitutes in Saratov

They were locked in apartments and could not go out alone even for a minute

Eleven girls had to stay under home arrest and work as prostitutes for about two years in the Russian city of Saratov. They would be taken out for walks in Bolshaya Kazachya Street. Law-enforcement officers of the regional Internal Ministry department, and the Saratov-based Office of the Public Prosecutor managed to arrest a gang that controlled the mentioned street.

Criminal boss Roman, the driver, was in charge of the cooperation with law-enforcement bodies. When police officers asked prostitutes, why they had not come to police before, they answered that their bosses had someone in the police anyway.

The Saratov police obtained the information about a criminal gang that oppressed eleven prostitutes in the beginning of the year. They intimidated and threatened the girls, making them work all the time. Clients were taken to the Bolshaya Kazachya Street, pimps rented three apartments there. Drugs or alcohol beverages were strictly banned. A girl was allowed to go out only if she was accompanied by a pimp. The girls could make up to 2000 thousand rubles (about $70) overnight, pimps took a half of the daily profit. After all deductions, one girl was paid 300 or 400 rubles.

If a girl refused to work, she would be either fined or beaten. An escape was punished with larger fines. A lot of "workers" have tried to escape many times, but they were not lucky. A girl would have to work off 60,000 rubles ($2,000) to be pardoned. Fines were used more often than beating, because pimps did not want to make their prostitutes look ugly.

Girls were selected carefully from small settlements on the outskirts of the city. At first, they would take all their IDs away from them and then humiliated them morally and psychologically, trying to make them weak-willed human beings. Criminals were good psychologists, they used threats and bribery methods to make the girls do what they wanted them to do.

The girls were intimidated and humiliated but they were dreaming of finding the real love. However, pimps did not want to let them go, because it took them long to make them work for them. The girls were driven to despair and tried to escape. Criminals would catch them again in their homes and bring them back to Saratov.

Two girls could not stand that horrible environment any longer. They drank too much alcohol and said that they would not go to work anymore. Two pimps and Roman arrived to talk to them soon. He started beating and threatening them, but the two girls would not change their minds.

Police officers arrived just on time. They kicked the door out, rushed in and arrested the criminals. One of the girls was screaming that she wanted to go back home to her mother. She had to be taken to hospital to recover. If the police had arrived five minutes later, she would have been beaten to death.

Bombs, weapons and drugs were withdrawn from the gang. Police officers say that the situation in the Bolshaya Kazachya Street will improve, although the arrested gang controlled only a part of it. However, the police believe that other criminals would have to stop their activities and hide, at least for a while.

Vladimir Savin, an investigator of Saratov's Office of the Public Prosecutor, said that the pimps had been charged with depriving people of freedom. Apparently, the Bolshaya Kazachya Street would still attract both prostitutes and their clients, taking into consideration the fact that there are a lot of unemployed young girls in remote settlements and villages of the Saratov region. Some of them are ready to take risks for 300 rubles a day ($10) and an opportunity to live in the city.

Zemskoye ObozreniyeSaratov