Viviana Andrea Vallejo Gutierrez, a Colombian national, was listed among the ten most wanted fugitives by Interpol, Europol, and the national police in 2022. After her arrest in Ecuador that same year, authorities extradited a woman connected to a case of sexual abuse against young residents living in apartments in Elche to Spain for trial in the following year. By the end of December, Viviana had begun serving parole after a State Court sentenced her to four years in prison, with the execution of the sentence to be suspended for four years pending good behavior and compliance with treatment obligations.
The defendants were represented by lawyers Roberto Sánchez Martínez and Rebeca García Serna and remained detained in Spain from late March until 21 December. They may qualify for conditional freedom in the period ahead as long as they commit no further offenses within the next four years and complete a drug detox program during the same timeframe.
The 38-year-old former fugitive, along with three other defendants, faced verdicts on charges including trafficking in persons for sexual exploitation in connection with prostitution, crimes against the rights of foreign nationals, and illegal immigration, according to the Elche-based court. The court imposed penalties consistent with these findings.
Prosecutors and defense teams reached a judicial agreement that reduced sentences for the defendants from 15 and 18 years to four years each. The court applied mitigating factors, including drug dependency, and awarded damages after a protected witness was compensated with eighty-eight hundred euros for non-pecuniary harm prior to the hearing.
Footage released by police depicted Viviana’s capture and subsequent proceedings. This testimony formed the backbone of the trial’s outcome, as all involved individuals were originally from Colombia and had engaged in recruitment activities targeting vulnerable women for sexual exploitation in Elche.
According to proven facts presented at sentencing, Viviana and another defendant acted as co-directors of a criminal network dedicated to sexual exploitation in Elche, operating from 2019 to 2021. The scheme allegedly leveraged the vulnerabilities of women in Colombia to lure them into prostitution in Spain.
The protected witness, who had entered prostitution in her homeland before being drawn into Europe, described violent forms of coercion. She reported that her three brothers had been killed and that debt collection tied to a drug deal was used to pressure her to work in the sex trade to support her daughter and mother. In November 2019, a contact in Colombia offered to assist her in entering Europe for prostitution, promising to relieve her immediate needs in exchange for a 1,500 euro advance, which she would repay by working in a Madrid-area brothel.
An unidentified organization member also arranged travel logistics, including providing hotel reservations in Madrid and Paris and forged documents to simulate a legitimate business trip. At Pereira International Airport in Colombia, the witnesses were given a sum of money to prove the legitimacy of their departure. After arriving in Madrid in mid-November 2019, they were transported by car to Elche.
Arrival in Elche and entry into prostitution
Upon arrival, the debtor’s obligation began almost immediately after reaching the brothel, where the victim shared a room with a fellow countrywoman and offered her first sexual service within two days. As the debt mounted—rising from 1,500 to 3,000 euros—the economic burden worsened due to travel costs and other charges, as described in the sentence.
The protected witness was forced to work under dismal conditions from November 14, 2019, through early March 2020, when it was claimed that the debt had been paid. The witness did not receive compensation for services rendered, while Viviana and her co-defendants controlled the operations around the clock. They could only leave for one hour per day and were required to return if a client called. In cases where clients requested acts that were deemed unsafe or non-consensual, payments were withheld and the debt obligations increased.
The network organized multiple Elche apartments to operate as brothels, moving locations when neighborhood objections arose. The case portrays a disturbing pattern of coercion, abuse, and exploitation that extended across borders and exploited vulnerable individuals seeking a better life.