Officers linked to sex racket
Police investigating the operations of one of the largest sex-trafficking rings ever broken in Greece were yesterday questioning 51 people including 19 suspected ring members, two of whom are police officers. Officers from the police’s organized crime unit said they had questioned more than 180 people about the racket, which is believed to have been bringing women from Russia and states of the former Eastern bloc into Greece and forcing them to work as prostitutes at nightclubs in Athens, Thessaloniki and other major cities. The proceeds of the ring’s activities were laundered through a chain of bakeries, whose owner is in custody, as well as nightclubs and the purchase of real estate. With the help of their counterparts in Russia, police determined that the ring lured women to Greece with the promise of work as dancers at nightclubs in various major cities before forcing them into the illegal sex trade.
