At least a hundred young people may have been sexually abused by a “shamanic” sect in Spain that allegedly used various kinds of drugs and made followers pay as much as €10,000 to access the heads of the group.
The Spanish Civil Guard dismantled the sect, according to a report from the newspaper El Mundo, arresting three leaders of the group who had been carrying out their shamanistic practice for years.
The three leaders—the “teacher”, her husband, and another individual—have been accused of various crimes, including sexual assault and illicit association.
Investigators believe there may be at least a hundred victims of the three perpetrators, and state that there may be victims in several provinces including Tarragona, Castellón, and Barcelona.
The sect is believed to have operated by recruiting young people, usually around the age of 20, who were suffering from emotional or personal problems at the time, though some of those recruited into the group may have been minors when they first started.
An investigation into the group started after several former members reported the activities of the sect to Spanish police, claiming that the sect had used hallucinogenic drugs in connection with “shamanic rituals” as well as practised “sexual therapies”.
Some of the actions were carried out allegedly against the will of those participating and several sexual abuses had reportedly been filmed in a villa in the Castellón town of La Pobla Tornesa, where the sect had been based for several months.
The “teacher” who led the sect is said to have emotionally manipulated the victims—making them emotionally dependent on the group—and threatened those who did not wish to participate in the rituals carried out by the sect.
In order to become part of the inner circle of the group, known as “the Circle” or “the Veterans,” the sect’s leaders demanded as much as €10,000 for “therapies” and when police raided the villa in La Pobla Tornesa, they found large amounts of cash.
Hallucinogenic drugs, payment records, and detailed files on the victims of the sect were also found by Spanish authorities.
The bizarre case comes just months after the Spanish Interior Ministry revealed that the number of rapes in Spain had increased by 34% last year and the number of other sexual assaults had increased by more than 50%.
Other cases of shaman sex abuse have been reported in Spain in recent years, including a shaman who was arrested for drugging women in Majorca with meth-laced “love water” before sexually abusing them.
The then-52-year-old man was arrested by authorities in 2018, alongside two others, and had been part of a gang that operated throughout Spain using the messaging app WhatsApp to organise meetings. Police say at least three women were victims of the shaman.
The 2018 case is remarkably similar to the sect dismantled this week, with the members allegedly learning how to perform rituals in South America and having operated in some of the same regions, such as Barcelona.
Another case was seen in Spain in 2012, when José Israel Gutiérrez, then 48, was arrested for sexually abusing women in Madrid. The Columbian national, described as a “Shaman Dwarf” by Spanish media, allegedly used psychotropic drugs to drug his victims before sexually abusing them.
Gutiérrez, who worked as a “stripper dwarf” is believed to have posed as a so-called witch doctor years prior to his arrest and may have had many victims.
