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The expansion of the offer of prostitution has of necessity brought about amarket of self-regulation: the pimps of different origin have divided up the territoryand the girls from Nigeria have been pushed towards the suburban areas of the cityand province. As it clearly emerges from the testimony often the girls paythemselves for the fluidity or lack of clarity of the agreements between the criminalorganisations.Within this framework the resort to alcohol in large quantities (above all beer)by the girls should be noted and in some cases, the use of stimulants and drugs. Theoperators talk about certain “pills”, rarely do they resort to cocaine, and to theconsumption of “Morocco” (substance consumed only by the Nigerians, apparentlyderived from cannabis) which accentuates the sense of loneliness, whichcharacterises the victims of the Nigerian traffic. The deep schism between the lifeconducted and the external reality is, on the other hand, one of the possibleexplanations of the fact that, as most of the operators interviewed mention, the caseof women in need of psychiatric assistance are particularly numerous amongst theNigerian victims.4.2 The management and control system of theexploitationThe exploitation of prostitution of the women coming from Nigeria is presentedas being peculiar, in respect to that of women of other origins, from different pointsof view.As a start, the management is operated by the same subjects that have preparedand followed the traffic from Nigeria or however belonging to the same group: youcan speak of “traffickers-exploiters” 36 , all from the same origin. Behind thisapparent low profile (from a superficial glance one could think to have businesswith an ethnic group who manages business in an artisan manner) there hides asystem well articulated on an international level - in Europe as in the country oforigin and in other areas - capable of managing recruitment, the journey, arrival inthe West, the connections on the “market” and the daily exploitation.Secondly, the phenomenon is characterised by management “by women”; menare relegated to a largely secondary function, however marginal, at least accordingto a superficial glance 37 .The final particularity is connected to the apparent freedom of movement whichthe women enjoy, freedom which is however possible only because of theexistence of a tight control operating from the top.36For such expression and to identify the various types of ties between exploitation of prostitution, trafficand market see Stefano Becucci (2003, page 32).37Many sustain that the men are present with roles at the top inside the organisation, even if not resultingas being present in the daily life of the women. On this point see the following Chapter.