Romanian Ioan Clamparu, one of the targets of Interpol’s Operation Infra-Red, was recently sentenced to 30 years in prison by a court in Madrid, Spain, for crimes including human trafficking and procuring for prostitution. The 30-year stretch was the maximum sentence requested by the prosecutors. The human trafficking network he created  is believed to have resulted in more than 100 Romanian women being forced into prostitution in Spain between 2000 and 2004.

Ioan Clamparu, 42, was also sentenced to 13 years in jail in Romania. He was under investigation by the Romanian judicial authorities for eight years but was arrested in Spain in October 2011, following close collaboration between Interpol’s National Central Bureaus in Romania and Spain, reads an Interpol statement.

He was accused of heading one of the biggest Romanian mafia groups, with dealings in human trafficking. He has been on the run from Romania for the last eight years. Ioan Clamparu was one of 450 international fugitives targeted during Interpol’s Operation Infra-Red in July 2010.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com

(photo source: Sxc.hu)