THE HAGUE – The Supreme Court of the Netherlands has definitively ruled that the owners behind Curaçao nightclub La Tasca must repay more than 667,000 guilders in illegally obtained profits to the government, bringing a final legal conclusion to one of the island’s most high-profile human trafficking cases in recent years.
According to earlier rulings by the Joint Court of Justice of Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten and of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba, the convicted couple earned the money through large-scale human trafficking, migrant smuggling and illegal employment of Venezuelan women at the nightclub located in Otrobanda.
The women were reportedly brought to Curaçao without valid documentation and employed as so-called “trago girls,” whose role was to encourage customers to purchase large amounts of alcohol. Prosecutors also stated that sexual services formed part of the activities surrounding the nightclub operation.
The Supreme Court rejected the couple’s cassation appeals on Tuesday without issuing a detailed substantive explanation, leaving the earlier rulings fully intact.
The case became widely known on Curaçao as “Case Venus.”
Investigations and arrests linked to the nightclub already drew public attention in 2019, when reports emerged that one of the suspects allegedly attempted to bribe police officers during the investigation in an effort to influence inspections and enforcement actions.
Over the course of the court proceedings, more details emerged regarding the living and working conditions of the Venezuelan women involved.
According to prosecutors, the women were required to work six to seven days per week, often late into the night. They were allegedly forced to stay in a nearby hotel and kept financially dependent through debts and deductions from their earnings.
The couple was ultimately sentenced to four years in prison for co-perpetrating human trafficking, migrant smuggling and illegal employment practices. Those prison sentences had already become irrevocable prior to the latest Supreme Court decision.
The case also sparked broader public debate about the relationship between Curaçao’s nightlife industry, law enforcement and corruption.
During earlier hearings, judges openly criticized police officers who frequently visited nightclubs where Venezuelan women worked, intensifying scrutiny over possible connections between organized crime and public officials.
Following the criminal convictions, the couple attempted through cassation proceedings to prevent the confiscation of the 667,000 guilders. Defense lawyers argued that the Court had included financial benefits tied to periods or facts that had not been fully proven and claimed that certain operational costs should have been deducted from the confiscation amount.
The Supreme Court rejected those arguments, ruling that the complaints raised no new legal questions warranting reversal of the earlier judgments.
With that ruling, the confiscation order is now final, ending years of criminal proceedings, appeals and cassation litigation surrounding the La Tasca case.