TEH HAGUE, June 23 — British and Romanian police have smashed an organised gang that smuggled women into northern England to force them into the sex trade, Europol said yesterday after an international operation.
In a series of coordinated searches this week, some 40 people were arrested in the two countries and €5 million (RM23.92 million) in cash, property, electronic items and luxury goods like watches were seized, police forces said.
On Monday, Romanian police searched a total of 71 houses where 35 people were arrested and “significant amounts in different currencies” including euros, dollars and Swiss francs were found, the European police agency said.
“The operation aimed at disrupting a highly organised crime group active in trafficking young women for the purpose of sexual exploitation and money laundering,” Europol said.
Eight properties, eight luxury cars, 24 laptops and 92 smartphones were also seized.
Simultaneously, British police launched dawn raids in northeastern Newcastle on 10 properties, arresting six people on Monday and Tuesday “in connection with modern-day slavery” and freeing eight women, the Northumbria force said yesterday.
“We believe that these women were trafficked into the UK on the promise of paid employment, but what awaited them was a horrific life of exploitation,” said Superintendent Peter Bent in a statement.
“Modern day slavery is a horrendous crime but it is often hidden and we rely on the vigilance of people in our local communities to report any suspicious behaviour to us.”
Romanian prosecutors said the operation had allowed them to dismantle four organised crime gangs, believed to have been preying on women since 2009.
The gangs “recruited by misleading several young women into practising prostitution in Switzerland, Germany, Great Britain, Belgium, the Czech Republic and Spain,” the Romanian prosecutor’s office said.
Europol said police in Belgium and Switzerland were also deployed to crack down on the network. — AFP
