Members of the group had targeted disadvantaged women in Romania via social media, Eurojust, the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation, announced on Tuesday. Thirteen people were arrested in Romania, five in Switzerland – four in the city of Zurich and one in canton Solothurn.
According to the information provided, the suspected human traffickers pretended to love the victims or lured them abroad with the promise that they could perform sex work there under lucrative conditions.
In reality, the victims were forced to work under degrading conditions. Even pregnant women were forced into prostitution.
According to Eurojust, the gang rented flats and advertised the women’s services on escort websites.
From 2022, the gang operated in several cities in German-speaking Switzerland, particularly Zurich, according to the press release. It had previously been active in other European countries for more than seven years.
After moving to Switzerland, the alleged leader of the group began recruiting new members, according to Eurojust. He had built up a “school of criminals” and taught others to enslave and exploit victims.
It was initially unclear exactly when the arrests were made in Switzerland. However, Eurojust said that the investigations had ended in a “day of action” on Tuesday. On the Swiss side, the public prosecutor’s office of canton Zurich and the Zurich city police carried out the operation. The Swiss News Agency Keystone-SDA initially received no response to enquiries from the public prosecutor’s office, the city police and the Federal Office of Police (Fedpol).
According to Eurojust, the suspected victims of the human traffickers were brought to safety. They received support from a specialised counselling service. In Romania, the raid was also directed against people who allegedly provided logistical support to the main perpetrators and laundered money for them.
The raid in Romania was carried out by police units in the regions of Bacău, Neamț and Iași in the north-east of the country.
Translated from German by DeepL/ts
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