Vlad Costel, known as “the Rumanian Godfather”, directed one of the major networks for prostitution in Alicante, a Mafia operation that deceived, threatened, tortured and exploited women, some below the age of consent.
The girls were recruited in Romania and brought over to Spain by bus; Costel’s son in law, Constantin Aurelian Tudor, otherwise known as 'Tarzan' was in charge of this part of the operation. He was also responsible for placing the girls once they were in the country.
Some of the girls knew that they were coming to Spain to work as prostitutes, many though were told that they would be working in the hotel trade or in people’s houses. Some were even given false contracts for three months. The ones who were under age were given false passports to get them here.
If the girls did not earn enough money or tried to escape, they were told their families back in Romania would be killed. If they tried to enlist the help of one of their clients, they were beaten with copper cables. The ones in the clubs would be locked up to prevent the from leaving.
The centre of operations was the Godfather’s house in Gran Alacant from where the network spread across the whole province and beyond including the Las Palmeras (El Altet) and El Castillo (Alicante) clubs.
The Godfather is now behind bars. However, we know that when one criminal is caught, others will step up to fill the gap. Hopefully, the sentence that Costel and his gang received will be sufficient to deter too many from following in his footsteps.
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