A routine police check in Albufeira has seen a 15-year-old reported missing in Holland two weeks ago rescued from the clutches of her abductor.
According to press reports this morning, the youngster had been kidnapped to become a sex slave.
When police pulled over the Dutch-registered car that her abductor was driving, they were first alerted by the fact that the driver was “extremely nervous” and then further suspicious when they discovered his young passenger had no identification documents.
From then on, the situation went rapidly downhill. First, there was the explaining to do of how the driver came to be in possession of €20,000 in cash – by which time police computer checks had revealed he was wanted on an international arrest warrant for kidnapping.
The GNR’s Major Marco Henriques told reporters that the man had tried to explain his passenger’s lack of documents by saying that he had “bought her”.
As Henriques explained, this only served “to raise suspicions even further”.
The 39-year-old Dutch/Bosnian has already appeared before magistrates in Évora and is now in jail in Beja awaiting extradition.
All police would say regarding his victim is that “she is safe” and they are now awaiting the court decision that will see her reunited with her family.
