London Evening Standard/London
The Metropolitan Police yesterday smashed a suspected Russian mafia gang that ran a prostitution and trafficking racket from an apartment block in west London.
Detectives raided 13 addresses and rescued nine women. Officers believe they were lured from Eastern Europe with the promise of jobs in the leisure industry in London.
But once here they were forced to work as prostitutes with threats that their families would be targeted if they refused.
Police described the gang as criminals “profiting from the abuse of scores of women”.
Six people were arrested, four of them Russians, at properties including Chelsea Harbour and a gated estate behind Chelsea’s football ground.
The Met’s Human Trafficking and Prostitution Unit launched the raids after a 12-week covert surveillance operation. They say the gang ran a highly organised and complex network of brothels, complete with enforcers and an accountant.
At its centre was a block of nine flats in Warwick Road which the group rented and operated as a brothel.
Each of the flats was occupied by a woman who was forced to work for the gang. Police estimate the block of flats could generate up to £20,000 a day.
Detectives seized £75,000 in cash from two addresses yesterday.
The suspected ringleader was a 44-year-old Russian woman who was arrested at an address on the Brompton Park Crescent estate in Chelsea. Detective inspector Kevin Hyland, of the Human Trafficking and Prostitution Unit, said: “We have targeted an organised group of criminals who have been profiting from the abuse of scores of women.
“This operation is in part a result of victims having the courage to come forward about the abuse they are suffering. I urge other victims of trafficking to phone our hotline where we have translators and specially trained staff awaiting their call.”
He added: “This was organised and run on the lines of a business with elements that arranged the recruitment in eastern Europe, the advertising and the website and the accounting.”
Three of the Russian nationals were in the UK illegally. Following the raids the nine women, who were from Russia, Bulgaria and Latvia, were taken to a care centre. Five people were arrested on trafficking, controlling prostitution and money laundering offences. These included two women from Chelsea, aged 44 and 33, a 31-year-old woman from Fulham, and a 27-year-old man and a 30-year-old woman, both from Palmers Green. A sixth person, a man aged 37 from Beckton, was arrested in Essex.
