Police arrest 9 men in major sex trafficking raids in Britain

Published Jan 10, 2018

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London - Police arrested

nine men in northern England suspected of trafficking and raping

young women following raids on Tuesday on several homes in a

crackdown involving more than 150 officers.

The arrests were made in the town of Stockton and city of

Sheffield as part of a major ongoing investigation into the sex

abuse, exploitation and trafficking of women across Britain,

according to Cleveland police force, based in northeast England.

The raids were carried out after officers received

intelligence that at least 10 women were trafficked both within

the region and across the country, and raped by multiple men in

various addresses over a period of several months, police said.

The number of officers involved - more than 150 - was "exceptionally high" for an anti-trafficking operation, Will

Green, a police spokesman, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Police forces across the country are ramping up efforts to

investigate cases of trafficking and modern slavery, with more

than 500 live policing operations into the crimes ongoing, say

the National Crime Agency (NCA) - dubbed Britain's FBI.

"Our message is clear, to those who are victims of this vile

abuse; there is hope," said Jason Harwin, Cleveland police

assistant chief constable.

"We are on your side; we can and will help you."

At least 13,000 people across Britain are estimated by the

government to be victims of modern slavery - but police say the

real figure is far more likely to be in the tens of thousands.

"Human trafficking, the exploitation of the most vulnerable

in our communities by the most ruthless, will not be accepted,"

Harwin said in a statement following the arrests.

Police recorded 2,255 modern slavery crimes in the past

financial year - up from 870 cases during the same period for

2015/16 - according to Britain's anti-slavery tsar Kevin Hyland.

In September, nine members of a British family who enslaved

vulnerable adults while enjoying a lavish lifestyle were

sentenced to a total of almost 80 years in prison following one

of the largest investigations of its kind in the country.

Despite the upsurge in cases, police in Britain are failing

slaves, with a lack of understanding, mediocre investigations

and troubling attitudes from officers leaving many victims prey

to further exploitation, a police watchdog said in October. 

Thomson Reuters Foundation

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