Sex slaves liberated in huge vice bust including raids in Londonderry and Donegal

The PSNI and An Garda Síochána carried out a large number of searches across both jurisdictions in a co-ordinated operation last week.

It’s been revealed the local police forces were assisted by law enforcement colleagues from the Serious and Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), Europol and the UK Border Agency.

The raids were part of a major cross-border multi-agency operation, codenamed Operation Quest, against organised prostitution on the island of Ireland.

In Northern Ireland, PSNI officers visited more than 20 addresses across every county in an operation which ran throughout Tuesday, May 29.

Police believe 10 of these locations were being used for the purposes of prostitution. The operation, to date, has resulted in: five arrests; three suspected victims of human trafficking rescued; significant numbers of documents, phones and computers seized as well as cash.

The Garda operation involved over 200 Gardai and resulted in the search of over 100 premises (mainly apartments, flats and houses) in the Republic of Ireland.

Three people were arrested. A man aged in his 40s and a female aged in her 20s were detained under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, 1984 at Dundrum Garda Station, Dublin, while a female aged in her 20s was detained at Store Street Garda Station, Dublin, also under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act.

A large amount of documentation, cash, mobile phones and computers have also been seized.

The officer leading the PSNI investigation, Detective Superintendent Philip Marshall from Organised Crime Branch, said: “This joint policing operation between PSNI and AGS was conducted across all counties in Northern Ireland and all policing Regions in the Republic which indicates both the scale of the operation and the extent of the problem on the island of Ireland.

“The primary focus of this operation was to gather information and evidence on those individuals we believed to be involved in organised prostitution, money laundering and, in effect, organised crime.

“Our enquiries have established that prostitution was being organised on a cross-border basis so we have adopted a cross-border approach to tackle those organised criminals who are intent on making profits from vulnerable members of society.

“Police officers, and colleagues in a number of partner agencies, will also work to gather information and evidence in relation to human trafficking, given the exploitation of vulnerable individuals within the so-called sex industry.

“Anyone identified within the policing operation will be interviewed by specially trained officers to establish if they are potential victims of human trafficking and provided with specialist assistance from existing support networks within the respective jurisdictions.”

The huge vice bust follows revelations in the Sentinel in April that the PSNI believed Triads had been forcing women into sex slavery in Londonderry under threat of extreme violence.

A Department of Justice (DOJ) report claimed women were tricked into coming to Northern Ireland to “carry out cleaning and nannying jobs but were forced into prostitution through extreme violence” by Triad gangs in Londonderry and Belfast.

Local women were also being forced into prostitution by unscrupulous people and moved from one town to another to work in brothels, according to the in-depth Department of Justice report.

Although the report was completed last year, press coverage then concentrated only on the details of the press release issued by the department.

The report said women were tricked into coming to Northern Ireland to “carry out cleaning and nannying jobs but were forced into prostitution through extreme violence” by Triad gangs.

The research paper investigated a range of issues for women in Northern Ireland involved in prostitution. It was based on the testimony of three PSNI officers responsible for investigating prostitution and human trafficking in Northern Ireland, two based in Belfast and one in Londonderry, amongst other sources.

Whilst Chinese ‘snakehead’ gangs - a branch of the notorious Triad organised crime group - are said to have been involved in smuggling prostitutes through Stranraer to destinations including Belfast and Londonderry, local paramilitary groups are also said to have been involved in the vice trade.

And a further report in the Sentinel last month revealed how homeless women were being sexually exploited in Londonderry in exchange for money, drugs, alcohol or just a roof over their heads.

The revelation was one of many grim observations made in an internal health service paper concentrating on prostitution in the Londonderry area.

The report also found that despite “anecdotal evidence of brothels in operation in Londonderry and Omagh and stories of girls wanting a change of scene and coming down from Belfast using local hotels” health officials have found it “extremely difficult to provide a service to commercial sex workers.”

Equally, since the departure of a single PSNI officer who had set up an initiative to address the issue “no one has taken this work forward in the Derry area.”

The shocking revelations were contained in a 22-page ‘Commercial Sex Workers’ paper for the Western Sexual Health Strategy Steering Group, which despite having been published back in late 2008 is the only Londonderry specific document on prostitution and sexual health available to local health officials.

Following last week’s decisive action to tackle vice and sex slavery in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland Detective Superintendent Marshall said: “Police on both sides of the border will evaluate the results of this multiple search operation and continue to work closely together to tackle those organised criminals, in Northern Ireland and the Republic, who we believe are involved in organised prostitution and human trafficking.

“Further searches and arrests may follow in due course.”