Prague, Dec 14 (CTK) – The Czech and Romanian police have busted a seven-member Romanian gang that is suspected of forcing Romanian women into prostitution in night clubs in Prague, Jaroslav Ibehej, spokesman for the Czech Centre Against Organised Crime (NCOZ), told the media on Wednesday.
He said the gang members expediently started love affairs with girls from poor families. Promising them a job abroad, they transferred the girls to Prague and forced them into prostitution.
The gang was comprised of men from the Dambovita region, aged from 23 to 31. Some of them are cousins, the police said.
They were addressing Romanian girls for three years, and some even married them. Once in Prague, the perpetrators used the fact that the girls depended on them because they did not speak Czech and were short of money.
“The young women, aged from 18 to 27, came from poor families with a low living standard and without education and life prospects. They were supposed to hand practically all financial means they gained through prostitution to the suspects who regularly came to collect the money in the Czech Republic,” Ibehej said.
The women also sent money to Romania, he said.
Each suspect regularly received money from two female partners at least, who knew about each other and competed for the man’s favour.
The gang gained more than 3.8 million crowns and several thousand dollars since 2015, the police said.
Seven members of the gang have been arrested in Romania.
The Czech police seized electronic data within home searches and heard nine witnesses.
The Czechs investigate the case on suspicion of human trafficking, but they will subsequently pass the proceedings on to Romania where the men also face the charges of procuring, usury and money laundering.
They probably committed crime all over Europe, Ibehej said.
