Mastermind Behind Dubai’s Porta Potty Sex Ring Identified

Rumors of wild sex parties in Dubai have floated across social media for years. 

While many dismissed the posts as salacious gossip or an exaggeration of “influencer lifestyles,” the hashtag #DubaiPortaPotty fueled both speculations and parodies alike, amassing more than 450 million views on TikTok, but a recent investigation has cut through the noise, revealing a reality that is far darker and more disturbing than anyone online could have ever imagined.

According to the BBC investigation, the man at the center of this seedy network is Charles “Abbey” Mwesigwa, a former London bus driver who now operates a sex trafficking ring in Dubai’s most affluent neighborhoods, by luring young women from Uganda to the UAE with promises of legitimate jobs, often as supermarket clerks, hotel staff, or other respectable employment. Instead, upon arrival, these women are trapped and forced into sex slavery under the guise of being indebted for the trip. The women revealed that they were often booked for high-profile clients, which sometimes included those with extreme and dehumanizing fetishes.

The young women found themselves housed in cramped apartments, forced into sex work, and saddled with fabricated expenses as Mwesigwa forced the women to work the streets daily to look for “customers” to help repay the debt that accrued. 

One survivor, referred to as Mia, told the BBC that as soon as she arrived at the apartment, she was told she already owed £2,000 ($2,700). Within two weeks, the debt had doubled. Airfare, visas, housing, food, everything became part of a never-ending tab. 

“Money for air tickets, for your visa, for where you’re sleeping, food,” says Mia.

“That means you have to work hard, hard, hard, pleading for men to come and sleep [with] you.”

Mia shared that the  “work” included catering to the most degrading demands, revealing that one client regularly defecated on women, while another survivor, Lexi, shared that men would offer her thousands to gang-rape her, urinate in her face, beat her, and film her eating feces. 

“There’s this one client, he poops on girls. He poops and he tells them to eat the shit,” Mia quietly shared with the publication.

The BBC investigation also linked Mwesigwa to the tragic deaths of at least two women, Monic Karungi in 2022 and Kayla Birungi in 2021. Both women died after falling from high-rise apartments in Dubai. Authorities ruled their deaths suicides, but friends, family, and fellow victims believe otherwise.

Monic, who left Uganda under the impression she’d secured a supermarket job, soon found herself in one of Mwesigwa’s overcrowded flats with 50 girls. According to her family, Monic had become desperate to escape and even found what she believed to be legitimate work, but before she could free herself, she mysteriously fell from her apartment balcony. 

“She had got some kind of job. She was very excited. She thought she was gonna get free, she was going to get her life back because now that was a real job, no sleeping with men,” Mia said.

Following her death, Monic’s family never recovered her body, which the BBC reports may have been buried in an unmarked grave in Dubai’s Al Qusais Cemetery.

Kayla’s case eerily mirrored Monic’s, with Dubai authorities claiming drugs and alcohol contributed to her death, but a toxicology report showed none were present in her system. Both women’s ties to Mwesigwa and the circumstances of their deaths raise chilling questions about the true scale of this operation and how many more unnamed victims could be out there.

The investigation also uncovered that Mwesigwa has maintained his operation for years by shielding himself with layers of plausible deniability by using multiple aliases, paying off nightclub security to allow access for his women, and registering his properties under associates’ names. Even when family members of the deceased tried to confront him, Mwesigwa allegedly shouted:

“I have spent 25 years in Dubai. Dubai is mine… There is no way you are going to report me… Embassy is me, I’m the embassy.”[Monic’s] not the first to die. And she won’t be the last,” Mwesigwa reportedly told Monic’s relative. 

Despite the brazen claims, Dubai police have consistently dismissed concerns raised by survivors. Lexi, who escaped back to Uganda and now helps other women, recalls officers telling her bluntly: “You Africans cause problems for each other. We don’t want to get involved.”

Uganda’s labor export industry is a billion-dollar business, with thousands seeking jobs in the Gulf each year due to limited opportunities at home, but without accountability, these migration pipelines remain fertile ground for predators like Mwesigwa to operate.

As noted by Monic’s relative, Michael, “We are all looking at Monic’s death. But who is there for the girls still alive? They’re still there. Still suffering.”

The BBC reportedly asked Mwesigwa to respond to the allegations, and he denied running a prostitution ring, insisting he is simply a “party person” with wealthy contacts. However, his own words to undercover reporters thwarted his story:

“I told you I am just a party person who invites big spenders on my tables, hence making many girls flock [to] my table. That makes me know many girls and that’s it.

“[Monic] died with her passport meaning no one was demanding her money for taking her. Prior to her death, I hadn’t seen her for over four to five weeks.

“I knew [Monic and Kayla] and [they] were renting with different landlords. If no one in both flats was arrested or any of the landlords, then there was a reason. Both incidents were investigated by the Dubai police and maybe they can help you.”

This investigation should not end with simple exposure; instead, it must force a reckoning so that the women can receive true justice. Because behind the glamorous skyline of Dubai lies a network of exploitation that thrives on silence.

SEE ALSO:

Sex Trafficking: Black Women, Girls At Greater Risk

Black Teen Faces 20 Years For Sex In Dubai