Stage star Louise Jameson
Scotland
A Romanian gangster who trafficked women to Scotland to work in a £500,000-a-year prostitution ring has been jailed for more than four years in his home country, we can reveal.
Vasile Radu was the ringleader of an international trafficking operation moving victims from poverty blackspots in the Prahova region of the country to flats in the east end of Glasgow.
The gang thought they could earn more money here than in their homeland and that they could evade justice by flitting between different countries. However, their operation was dismantled after a wave of raids co-ordinated by Police Scotland and Romania’s Directorate for Investigating Organised Crime and Terrorism in Glasgow’s Dennistoun and Haghill areas in 2016. Similar raids were mounted in Romania and, in an unusual move, a decision was taken jointly by prosecutors here and in the eastern European country to put all the accused on trial in Romania.
Following lengthy delays, in part due to the pandemic, the case was dealt with at Ploiesti Criminal Court at the end of February, with Radu, 42, sentenced to four-and-a-half years for human trafficking. The man in charge of the Scottish end of the operation, Razvan Nedelea, also known as Razvan Necula, 40, was given a suspended jail term of two years as well as three years’ probation and 60 days’ community service for procuring women to work in prostitution. Six other gang members were sentenced for their part in also procuring women. Nicoleta Nastase, 32, Roxana Necula,
38, Constantin Lamba, 39, Justinian Filip, 27, Viorel Ioan 46, and Cristian Toma, 32, all received suspended jail terms, probation and community service.
Radu was also forced to hand over £60,000 to the court while Nedelea forfeited about £40,000 which he took from the earnings of six women working in Glasgow. Radu was also ordered to pay back a further £8,500 to one of the women.
Nedelea is believed to have moved from Romania to London in 2014 and came to Scotland aspartofthe crime network the following year. He made an appearance at Glasgow Sheriff Court in 2016 before the prosecution was switched to Romania.
Sources estimated the vice network may have made £500,000 in a year before it was dismantled. The gang sold the women online and through agencies and dictated their number of customers, how much they charged and where and when they would be seen. Nedelea, Necula and Toma are understood to have lived at the time in Glasgow’s Roslea Drive. A Joint Investigation Team was established involving crime agencies Eurojust and Europol, Police Scotland, the Crown Office, and the Romanian authorities to tackle the gang. Operation Arcero saw Glasgow raids target two addresses in Craigpark Drive as well as flats in nearby Hanson Park, Sword Street and Corsock Street.
Raids were also carried out in Ploiesti in Romania. More than 40 potential victims of human trafficking were interviewed afterwards.
Europol said: “We actively supported the action day and provided operational analytical support to Romania and the UK throughout the entire investigation.” A Romanian police spokesman said: “The organised group were trafficking women from Romania to Scotland with the purpose of sexual exploitation. The women worked as prostitutes in Scotland, mainly in flats rented by the criminal group members, who controlled them and collected the money they made.”
Detective Superintendent Fil Capaldi, head of Police Scotland’s Human Trafficking Unit, said: “These convictions send a very clear message to criminal gangs behind human trafficking that borders are no barrier to justice.
“We will utilise all investigative methods at our disposal and continue to work with law enforcement across the world to tackle trafficking and bring an end to the horror of modern slavery and
exploitation.”