Laurence Dollimore
A COURT has heard how Romanian brothers in Spain allegedly cut off one of their prostitute’s arms and forced them to eat money.
The Sandulache brothers, based in Oviedo, earned up to €10,000 per night from their prostitution business.
One night, the sick duo, named Cristian and Sebastian, allegedly forced four of their girls to eat €700 in cash after they failed to make enough money.
They called Ionut Baciu, their henchman, and said: “Ionut, bring a little water, because it takes a lot to get the bills down the throat.”
While the girls ingested the money, the Sandulaches warned: “If this happens again, next time you eat it in coins.”
These are some of the accusations against the two brothers from Vaslui (Romania) who are facing 600 years in prison.
They are accused of human trafficking, coercive prostitution and money laundering.
Cristian is the little brother (he was born in 1984), but is the head of the clan.
His brother Sebastián was born in 1979 but occupies a lower rank in the network.
The trial against them has just begun in the Audiencia Provincial de Oviedo.
While in jail previously, the Sandulaches made a series of cuts along their penises.
Inside these incisions they introduced small metal balls. When the wounds healed, these balls were covered by the skin and became a part of their members.
It’s a sick accessory that makes sex more pleasurable for them but causes intense pain to the women with whom they practice it.
The brothers reportedly say a man without those balls inside his penis is not a man.
The shocking accounts come from two victims, known only as A.C. and A.G.M.
The two young Romanians were tricked into believing the brothers were their boyfriends while in their home country.
They travelled to Spain thinking they would be offered a better way of life, but when they arrived they realised their loving boyfriends were in fact twisted pimps.
The pair were soon subject to daily beatings, rapes, humiliations and threats … In addition to forcing them into prostitution, A.C. and A.G.M. were attacked twice as much as the others, as an example.
In addition to being deceived and living under constant threat, the girls acquired huge debts with the Sandulaches:
“If you ever do not make the payment directly, I’ll fire your mother, burn your grandmother over there,” Cristian would allegedly threaten one of the girls.
Another told the court she was told: “I’m going to rape your little sister (minor), I’m going to burn your grandmother, and I’m going to kill you, I’m going to put your body in a sack and I’m going to throw you around.”
Some of the girls claimed they were raped by system, almost daily and without a condom.
Many ended in pregnancies but the Sandulaches forced the girls to abort, some of them even in the 15th week of pregnancy.
Because they were so late they had to be sent to Romania to have them performed.
One of the prostitutes had practiced wrestling in Romania for several years.
Due to her physical strength, the Sandulaches decided to make sure that they were beating her and they were more forceful with her than with any of the other girls.
“They gave it to her like a man,” declared one of the complainants.
“They beat her so bad that she stayed in bed for a week without being able to move.
“They cut off her arm with a katana.”
The regime of terror that the Sandulache had imposed on their domains led the girls to be immersed in an authentic spiral of schizophrenia.
Among them they had the obligation to watch each other and to snitch if any planned to escape.
On one of these occasions, it reached the ears of the brothers that one of them wanted to escape after she had gone for a drink with a client after work hours.
It was more than enough reason for the Sandulaches to decide to cut off her arm with a katana (Japanese sword similar to Samurai swords).
This sword was one of the main threat tools. One of the prostitutes claims that whenever they raped her, they did it in a bed with the sword protruding from a pillow, a reminder of what would happen if you resisted.
Although the girls managed to produce up to €10,000 euros in one night in the two main brothels in Oviedo (Delphos and Elvis), they were paid only €200 every 15 days.
Meanwhile, the Sandulaches sent huge amounts of money to Romania every day for their relatives and neighbours.
There have been up to 23 police records since the brothers arrived in Spain in 2013.
Trafficking in human beings, beatings, rapes, money laundering … Even some presumed armed robbery in Galicia.
Surprisingly, they have only spent a week in jail, and on that occasion they were released on payment of a deposit of 30,000 euros.
They are still on the street as the trial continues because the court ruled ‘they are not a flight risk’.
