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.