A 55-year-old Dutchman has been detained on a European Arrest Warrant, suspected of having run an international prostitution ring from a “discreet villa” on the outskirts of Boliqueime.
According to news sources, the man is accused not only of selling sex (pimping) for as much as €500 an hour in a number of capital cities, but also of money-laundering.
PJ police who raided his home found a total of 11,000 pounds sterling in cash, plus 8,500 euros, various items of jewellery and a luxury car.
The house, described as “modest on the outside and luxurious within”, yielded other clues to undeclared earnings, while the man’s bank accounts were discovered to contain over 200,000 euros, Rádio Renascença reports.
Police in France had been investigating the foreigner for over a year, writes RR’s website.
He is understood to have been running an internet site that attracted clients from London, Paris and Amsterdam, linking them up with women from England, France and Romania.
Payments made were made through his site – with the Dutchman believed to have kept half of all monies received.
According to national tabloid Correio da Manhã, he handled the business with the use of a number of cellphones as well as computers – selling sex for as much as €500 an hour.
As police in France began making local arrests, they appealed to the PJ in Portugal to bring in what they claim is the network’s ringleader.
The Dutchman appeared before an Évora Appeal Court on Wednesday and is now due to be handed over to French police.
