Met cracks trafficking and prostitution racket with swoop on Chelsea and Earl’s Court ‘brothels’

A suspected gangland pimp with alleged links to Russian organised crime was being questioned today in connection with a human trafficking and high-class prostitution racket in London.

The Russian-born Israeli national allegedly ran a series of brothels in affluent areas of the capital.

Vice squad detectives swooped on the 40-year-old at his Chelsea home and rescued five women who are believed to have been trafficked to London and forced to work as prostitutes. The women were found in police raids on two alleged brothels in Chelsea and one in Earl's Court.

Another man was also held in connection with the racket.

Investigators believe the Israeli was a key player in an organised crime gang based in Russia and Europe.

He is accused of conning young women from eastern Europe into travelling to London by offering them large sums of money.

The suspected pimp promised he had secured them jobs as waitresses, shop assistants and dancers.
But when they arrived in the capital he took their passports and forced them to work as sex slaves to pay off their "debt" to him of up to £80,000.

The women are said to have earned about £200 a time for sex, and to have been threatened with violence while being plied with ecstasy and cocaine.

The raids followed an investigation by officers from the Metropolitan Police's human exploitation and organised crime command.

Detectives believe the trafficking racket from eastern Europe to the UK has been running for at least four years.

The suspected pimp was being quizzed at a central London police station.