An Israeli man wanted by Colombia for sex trafficking, including of minors, was arrested in Portugal yesterday, according to a police statement.
Police arrested Assi Ben-Mosh, 45, near Lisbon while in possession of fake Israeli identity documents, Spain’s Guardia Civil police force says in a statement.
He is suspected of having operated a “bunker-like” hotel in Taganga, a Colombian fishing village that has become popular with backpackers, where young women and underage girls were sexually exploited, the statement says.
Screen capture from video showing alleged crime lord Assi Ben-Mosh, right, on a flight after being expelled from Columbia. (Screen capture: YouTube)
Colombian authorities deported Mosh — whom local media called “the Devil of Taganga” — in 2017 because he was deemed a threat to public order.
But they recently issued an international arrest warrant for Mosh via Interpol for drug trafficking, money laundering and trafficking of human beings for the purpose of sexual exploitation.
Spanish police suspect Mosh hid for a while on the Spanish holiday island of Ibiza, and then Barcelona before he was arrested in Portugal earlier this week.
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