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Police swoop on alleged sex trafficking gang
Nine charged after 30 women ‘rescued’
TWO men from Bayswater are among the nine people who face charges relating to people trafficking and pimping after a major police operation this week.
Paddington was at the centre of a huge police operation on Saturday, when officers swooped on an address in Orsett Terrace, thought to be the nerve centre of an organised crime network alleged to traffick women from Thailand and coerce them to work as prostitutes.
Police said around 30 women, believed to be foreign sex slaves, are recuperating in a specialist holding centre following raids on a number of addresses across London.
The centre has been formed specifically for the ongoing operation and is staffed with interpreters, health workers and officers trained in sexual offences interview techniques.
It is alleged that criminals have been using an internet escort agency as a front for organised prostitution, where women are forced to sell sex to pay back enormous debts accrued by their captors.
More than 100 plain clothes officers from the Vice Squad were involved in the operation, codenamed Gib, the culmination of four months of intelligence gathering.
Chief Superintendent Ian Dyson, from the Clubs and Vice Unit said: “My officers are now working with specialist support staff to speak to all of the women we have recovered to find out how they have come to this country and what they understood before they arrived. Clearly we had to act. This operation was designed to break down the criminal network exploiting these women.”
Noppaarat Charoenying, 29, of Inverness Terrace, Bayswater and Graipich Vudto, 27, also of Inverness Terrace, Bayswater appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday and were remanded in custody.
In all nine people, including four women, have been charged with conspiracy to traffic women, conspiracy to control prostitution for gain and money laundering. |
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