How Nigerian trafficker was arrested 3 years after fleeing Europe

Franca Asemota, a Nigerian, has been found guilty of trafficking Nigerian girls for sex work, and sentenced to 22 years in jail in the United Kingdom.

Asemota was identified as a trafficking suspect in 2012 and fled from Italy to Nigeria when some of her co-conspirators were arrested by Immigration Enforcement investigators.

She was arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in Benin City in March 2015 during a co-ordinated operation by the NCA, and was extradited to the UK in January.

On Thursday, Isleworth Crown Court sentenced her after she was found guilty of attempting to traffic Nigerian girls through Heathrow Airport.

She was found guilty of a 12-count charge that included conspiracy to traffic persons for sexual exploitation, trafficking persons outside of the UK for sexual exploitation, and assisting unlawful immigration.

“She was part of a criminal network that trafficked girls, boys and women from Nigeria to Europe using threats to guarantee their compliance,” immigration enforcement crime team said in a press release.

David Fairclough, the head of the Immigration Enforcement crime team, said Asemota is the “lynchpin of a trafficking ring which targeted vulnerable young women in Nigeria, promising them a brighter future working in Europe”.

He said Asemota even sold girls as young as 13 into prostitution.

“Asemota travelled with the girls in order to threaten them and keep them in line. Trafficking is a despicable crime, as this case shows. We work closely with our law enforcement colleagues internationally to identify the criminal gangs responsible and put them before the courts,” he said.

Marting French, head of the NCA’s UK human trafficking centre, said: “Franca Asemota and her criminal network took advantage of these vulnerable young women in some of the worst ways possible. They promised them a better life but in reality treated them as nothing more than a commodity to be sold into slavery.

“Asemota thought she could evade arrest by fleeing Europe and hiding in Nigeria. But the NCA’s partnerships give us global reach and mean international borders are no barrier to justice.

“This conviction is the result of many years of dogged investigation and co-operation between the NCA, Immigration Enforcement and our law enforcement colleagues both at home and overseas.”

She spent time in Europe before the National Crime Agency (NCA) tracked her down to Nigeria.

Her targets had been teenage girls in remote Nigerian villages, some of whom had never left their home area before, deceiving them that educational work awaited them in Europe.

“The girls would stay with her before leaving, and in interviews with specialist officers from the NCA’s Vulnerable Persons Team many of the girls told how they referred to her as Auntie Franca,” the National Crime Agency said.

“Asemota travelled with the girls on flights from Lagos, Nigeria, to Heathrow, between August 2011 and May 2012, with the intention of reaching France. They remained airside during the transit at Heathrow so were not subject to Border Force passport checks.”

“However, the trafficking attempts were prevented when French Authorities identified the girl’s false documents on arrival in France. When they were then returned to the UK, Border Force officers carried out further investigations and the case was quickly referred to Immigration Enforcement criminal investigations.”