Police Action against African Prostitutes and organised People Trafficking across Ireland

A total of ten people have been arrested yesterday in a major coordinated police operation, targeting people trafficking and prostitution across Ireland and Wales.

Four women and three men were taken into custody following coordinated Garda raids on nine brothels and six other locations across the Republic of Ireland. Another man was arrested by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) in Newry, Co. Down, and a couple were detained by British police in Wales.

Those arrested in Wales are a 47-year-old Irishman and a 31-year-old woman from South Africa. The four women and three men being held in the Republic are suspected of committing a number of criminal offences, including organising and managing prostitution.

Brothels in Cavan, Drogheda (Co. Louth), Athlone and Mullingar (Co. Westmeath), Sligo, Kilkenny, Enniscorthy (Co. Wexford), Newbridge (Co. Kildare) and Waterford were raided and searched by officers of the Garda Síochána (Ireland's police).

Six other locations in Co. Carlow were also searched by Gardaí, including the homes and offices of a number of professional individuals, among them an unnamed accountant.

The raids followed an international investigation into organised people trafficking, which involved the Garda Síochána, the PSNI and the UK's Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA).

The PSNI said that the man arrested in Newry was being detained on suspicion of immigration offences.
It also conducted a number of covert inquiries at several locations throughout the North, which are being used as brothels by an criminal gang, organised through the internet.

A spokesman said the PSNI believes it has "dismantled an organised crime gang which was operating in three jurisdictions in Europe and has close links to South Africa".