“Broom” in brothels in Athens: Trafficking ring dismantled – Nine arrests

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The ring housed foreign women in an apartment and forced them to pay high rent. Under the pretext of paying off the exorbitant debt, they were forced to surrender to at least six brothels

A ring that trafficked foreign women, for the purpose of their financial and sexual exploitation, was dismantled by the Directorate for Combating Organized Crime and Human Trafficking of the Attica Security Directorate.

During a special police operation carried out in brothels in the center of Athensevening hours of Friday, October 14, with the participation of officials of the General Secretariat of Interpol and police officers of the competent anti-trafficking department of the Moldovan Police and with the assistance of OPKE police officers, 9 members of the ring were arrestedincluding the two leading ones.

A case file was filed against them for, as the case may be, the offenses of human trafficking, pimping, violation of seals and the laws on protection against the processing of personal data and money laundering. 2 more people are included in the case file.

At the same time, seven women were brought in from shelters, of which 2 were identified as victims of human trafficking. All of them were provided with help and psychological support by specialized social workers and psychologists.

As emerged from the police investigation, the ring, at least since the end of 2019, was approaching and recruiting vulnerable women from Moldova, taking advantage of their dire financial and family situation, while using fraudulent means to secure legal work in Greece, extracting the their consent to come to Athens.

Afterwards, the ring would settle the foreign women in an apartment, where the leading members of the ring also lived, who supervised them and forced them to pay a high monthly rent. The defendants, under the pretext of repaying the exorbitant debt that the women owed to the members of the ring due to their transfer to Greece, forced them to work as prostitutes in at least 6 brothels, keeping a large part of the income from their sexual exploitation.

It is noted that a large part of the financial benefit, which the ring obtained from its criminal activity, channeled it into a business it had with the aim of integrating it into the legal economy.

From the investigations carried out, among other things, a number of documents and handwritten notes related to the operation of brothels and money laundering from criminal activity, recording machines for surveillance of brothel premises, digital evidence and storage media and the amount of money of 2,358 euros.

Those arrested were taken to the competent prosecuting authority.

RES-EMP

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