Europol key to ending sex traffic

IT’S almost impossible to know the full extent of sex trafficking in Scotland.

By its very nature, this is a crime that takes place behind closed doors.

But what we do know for certain is that some men – many of them from eastern Europe – are making a lot of money by exploiting vulnerable women.

Stamping out this blight is a complicated business requiring co-operation across borders and painstaking work from police.

So it’s great news that they have smashed a Romanian crime syndicate who trafficked women to Glasgow to work as prostitutes.

A series of raids in Dennistoun snared Razvan Nedelea, who is now facing a string of charges in Romania.

The gang were pocketing £500,000 a year before they were brought to justice in a joint operation involving Police Scotland, Europol and Romania’s counter-mafia police.

Their capture means around 40 potential victims of human trafficking have escaped this unimaginable abuse, pain and fear.

Earlier this month, four men were arrested in Slovakia as part of a separate human trafficking investigation that also saw five arrests in Glasgow the previous week.

Meanwhile, the number of trafficking victims rescued in Scotland rose by 46 per cent in the two years up to 2015.

The common link in all these operations was Europol, the European Union’s law enforcement agency.

Unfortunately, Britain’s future involvement in the organisation is now uncertain.

This type of close co-operation across Europe is vital and can’t be allowed to become another casualty of Brexit.