MAASTRICHT - A store in the city center of Maastricht served as an "office" for a gang of human traffickers and smugglers, according to the Public Prosecutor's Office (OM) and the Royal Military Police.Five suspects from Meerssen, Maastricht, Geleen and Eindhoven must answer in court. The pro forma hearing took place yesterday in the court in Maastricht. The main suspect is the originally Nigerian Peggy A. (26) from Meerssen. According to the prosecution she is the key figure in the organization. The owner of the store in Maastricht is also a suspect in this case. From her so-called Afroshop the gang would have arranged the smuggling and trafficking of (underage) girls from Nigeria. False identity papers were frequently used, according to the prosecution.

An investigation by the Royal Military Police and the Maastricht Prosecutor's Office revealed that Nigerian girls were transported by boat to Libya, Italy, Morocco and Spain, among other countries. Then they were taken by plane or train to the Netherlands. For this trip, the girls had to pay several thousand euros.

Once in the Netherlands, they were to work in prostitution in Limburg, among other places. The suspect from Geleen, currently detained in Spain for involvement in a drug transport from Ecuador, allegedly took the girls as drivers to sex clubs in Sittard-Geleen, Aachen and other places.

The court yesterday honored the requests of attorney Serge Weening, counsel for Peggy A. to hear a large number of witnesses. Among them the father and two sisters of the main suspect and two victims. A further (pre-trial) hearing in this case is scheduled for October.

The defendant(s) in this case are assisted by: