A Nigerian-born British nurse, Josephine Iyamu, who allegedly used ‘juju’ to traffic Nigerian prostitutes to Europe, was on Thursday found guilty in the first case of its kind in the United Kingdom.
Iyamu, formerly of South London, used a witch doctor to convince her victims. They were under her control and she exploited them to fund a lavish lifestyle that included trips to Europe and £700 designer shoes, reports Daily Mail.
The 53-year-old woman from Edo state, known as “Madame Sandra,” was a ringleader of an international human trafficking crime network.
Iyamu charged each of her victims 30,000 euros and 38,000 euros to arrange for their travel to Europe, profiting from more than 15,000 euros from one victim alone via wire transfers and cash payments.
“She would first make the vulnerable women undergo ‘juju’ ceremonies which would involve them drinking blood containing worms and eating the heart of a chicken.“
The victims would then be forced to endure an arduous five-day journey to the Libyan coast, which saw them shot at, ambushed and gang raped.
“They would then catch an inflatable boat crammed with hundreds of people to Italy, before being moved into Germany to work as prostitutes.
“German police identified Iyamu as the ringleader of a Nigerian human trafficking operation after a brothel owner reported suspicions over one of his workers’ paperwork last January,” Daily Mail reports.
Iyamu and her husband were arrested at Heathrow Airport on August 24 last year after travelling back from Nigeria.
Officers also discovered a piece of paper detailing a list of items needed as part of the ‘juju’ ceremonies and another with telephone numbers of criminal associates.
On Thursday, Iyamu was convicted by a jury of five counts of arranging to facilitate travel of another person for exploitation following a trial at Birmingham Crown Court.
She was also found guilty of perverting the course of justice after paying Nigerian police to arrest one of the victims’ relatives in a bid to stop the woman giving evidence against them in the trial while both were in police custody in the UK.
Judge Richard Bond said: “This is the first case in England and Wales under the new 2015 Act whereby people have been trafficked from one country into another country.
“This is going to set a precedent.” - Daily Post
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