Gegen - Missbrauch e.V.

Child sex ring falling apart as police find more girls

Source: South African Broadcasting Corporation TV News
(www.sabcnews.co.za)
November 22, 2004, 12:45

The mystery surrounding some of the missing young girls in the country could finally be solved as a child sex ring is being unravelled. After 19 raids, even police are surprised at the enormity of the child sex ring that is operating in the country's main city centres.

The special task team has found another three girls in a well-known drug spot in Bloemfontein. The search for the missing young girls has taken the police to Durban, Johannesburg, Cape Town and more recently Bloemfontein.

The suspects abduct girls and move them from city to city depending on their clients' demands for sex. However the web ring seems to be falling apart as police are swooping on child sex operations daily. Operation Priscilla - named after the first girl successfully found - rescues alleged child sex slaves daily.

In the latest operation in Bloemfontein, police found a 15-year-old girl. Then it was back to Johannesburg after a tip-off. A house in Rosettenville was raided and two more girls were rescued. The girls apparently wanted out, and the morphine that was reportedly used during the abductions was found at the scene.

The girls were handed to Child Welfare and then returned to their parents. Seven more Nigerian syndicate members were arrested bringing the total to 66. Two suspected clients, one a South African businessman, were also apprehended.