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Diplomats slam raid ‘fiasco’
WESTMINSTER’S most senior policeman is under fire from the Romanian embassy after all but one of those arrested in high profile raids last month returned to their homes without charge.
Borough Commander Steve Allen claimed to have cracked a people-smuggling crime network after arresting 24 adults and seizing 11 children – including a one-year-old – on January 24.
Commander Allen told reporters following the swoop in Slough that he had “evidence that organised crime networks are exploiting and driving the most vulnerable members of their own community.”
But two weeks later all but one child has been returned to the Roma community and no one has been charged with child trafficking offences.
Fifteen adults appeared in Westminster Magistrate’s Court.
Nine were charged with minor immigration offences dating back seven years or more. Three were charged with theft of mobile phones, two with handling stolen mobile phones and the last with breach of a deportation order. Gheorge Mazarache, 25, was jailed for eight weeks after admitting handling a stolen mobile phone worth £430.
Diplomats at the Romanian embassy in north Kensington blasted the raid as a “fiasco” and are calling for an inquiry to explain what went wrong. |
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