Romania, Czech Police Crack Human Trafficking Ring

11 mart. 2009, 19:39, English

Police began investigating the crimes in the summer of last year, after several of the Romanians enslaved at the Czech farms managed to escape their oppressors.

Romanian officials made the first arrests in the case on September 25, 2008, when police apprehended three Romanian and two Ukrainian suspects. Several other Romanian suspects managed to elude arrest and they are still at large, police said.

The second stage of the investigation, unfolded in the Czech Republic, resulted in the arrest of three other Ukrainian suspects on February 16, 2009.

The operation is “an example of international cooperation in fighting human trafficking,” Romanian Police said.

Under the pretense of high salaries and additional bonuses, the traffickers would lure Romanian nationals to the Czech Republic where they would be forced to work at gunpoint.

“According to the victims, the work conditions were extremely harsh, as they would work like slaves (…) with very little and bad food (boiled potatoes or corn and two slices of bread),” the statement noted.

Police said the Romanian workers were guarded by Ukrainian nationals carrying automatic weapons “to induce a state of fear and uncertainty.”

Romanian prosecutors specialized in organized crime and terrorism will carry on investigations in the case to apprehend the suspects still at large and identify potential new victims as well as byproduct goods or values.

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human trafficking police