Live-PR.com, Austria
18 arrested in Italy in crackdown on trafficking
foreign women for prostitution
© AP
15.09.2007 14:47:10
(live-PR.com) – ROME (AP) – Police raided Italian
night clubs to break up an operation which forced
hundreds of newly arrived foreign women into
prostitution, arresting 18 suspects, authorities said
Saturday.
Investigators told a news conference in Florence that
the ring’s operators did the paperwork to legally
bring into Italy hundreds of young women, mainly from
Ukraine, Armenia and Kazakhstan, for what were
supposed to be jobs in the performing arts, arranged
for their travel and housing, then forced them into
prostitution into clubs and sometimes private
apartments, including in Tuscany and elsewhere in
northern and central Italy.
The suspects were arrested for suspected criminal
association dealing in illegal immigration and
exploiting and promoting prostitution.
Prostitution itself is not illegal in Italy, but
exploiting prostitutes is a crime.
Eight night clubs were shut down, police said.