GREECE: Greek police break up major international women-trafficking gang

Greek police say they have smashed an international criminal ring which had been trafficking women from Eastern Europe and the Balkans for sexual exploitation. Police surveillance video showed the women being taken for appointments with clients and police making arrests at a club. Greek police said on Monday (July 9) they had broken up a major international criminal organisation, that has been trafficking women for sexual exploitation from the Balkans and Eastern Europe. Police Security Chief Drossos Bougoudis said 13 members of an international woman trafficking organisation were arrested after a two month investigation that stretched across the Balkans and was aided by Interpol. The gang had been operating for the last two years, bringing women to Greece with the promise of legal employment. Eleven people -- eight men and three women -- of Greek, Kazak, Moldovan and Ukrainian origin were arrested in Athens, while another 62 people of various nationalities were arrested at clubs in Athens as accomplices involved in setting up the women in strip clubs or for meetings. Two members of the gang were also arrested in Ukraine with the help of Interpol, and another seven - five Greeks, one Russian and a Moldovan - are still being searched for with the aid of Interpol. Police freed three of the female victims - all Ukrainian - during the operation. Their investigation included surveillance of the apartments where victims were being held. Police uncovered the gang's hideout in Athens, where they were operating a telephone network to organise meetings with clients. In the office, client lists were found, along with money transfer documents, telephones, and three rifles and other weapons. Police also confiscated four vehicles used to transfer the women to appointments. In an undercover police surveillance video released on Monday, women were seen in the apartment and being transferred to appointments at night. The video also showed the operation taking place with police entering clubs to make arrests. One hundred and sixty special police officers were involved in the operation. Interpol and Europol also participated in the investigation, which began in the Ukraine two months ago where a suspected trafficker was located. Leads also came from the victims' families. Thousands of women each year are lured from Eastern European countries to Western Europe on the promise of legal work only to be forced into prostitution. The women are blackmailed by traffickers who tell them they must pay back their transport costs by working in the sex trade. Their families in their home countries are often threatened, causing victims to fear speaking out.

ITN Source | July 10, 2007

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