Spanish police are investigating a major paedophile network that has been targeting vulnerable children in care homes on the Canary Islands, a holiday hotspot popular with British tourists. The gang is accused of smuggling migrant children, many of whom arrived unaccompanied from Africa, into sexual slavery.
The investigation, codenamed Operation Triton, was triggered by reports of 14 missing children, mainly girls, who vanished from care homes in Lanzarote and Gran Canaria between November 2024 and May 2025. Police have arrested 11 alleged traffickers on charges including human trafficking, child pornography offences, and document forgery.
The children are believed to have been taken from Lanzarote and moved through a series of safe houses in mainland Spain before being sold into sexual exploitation in France. The gang has been linked to Morocco and the Ivory Coast for falsified documents. Four suspects are currently held in pre-trial detention.
Canary Islands officials admitted that children in care homes are not under 24-hour surveillance and are free to go out alone. The islands care for 37 per cent of all unaccompanied minors in Spain and are struggling to cope with the influx. Since August 2023, 1,500 children have applied for asylum, many fleeing forced marriage or genital mutilation.
