Romania, U.K. Bust Child Trafficking Gang That Sent Roma Children To Beg In Britain

Romanian organized crime prosecutors, along with Britain’s Metropolitan Police and Europol searched 34 homes Thursday in Tandarei and opened criminal investigations for 27 people on charges of child trafficking, money laundering and organized crime.

Investigators say the gang specialized in illegal migration and child trafficking to Western Europe. The traffickers reportedly recruited ethnic Roma children from poor communities, who were then illegally taken to the U.K. where they were forced onto the streets to beg and steal.

So far, investigators identified some 168 such children, aged seven to 15.