Police smash human trafficking gang

A multi-million-pound illegal immigration racket was smashed by police today.

Detectives from the Operation Maxim task force, which targets "slave-master" gangs, swooped on business and residential addresses in south London and Surrey.

At least eight people, mostly Turkish nationals, were arrested on suspicion of human trafficking and money-laundering offences.

In a simultaneous operation, immigration police in Germany arrested five people in raids on nine addresses in Hamburg and Cologne.

The suspected trafficking gang was behind the smuggling of hundreds of people from Turkey into Britain to work illegally in cafés, takeaways and restaurants in London and Surrey. They were brought into Britain along wellestablished routes through Germany, France and Belgium.

Police believe they have smashed the entire trafficking network, targeting those involved at the source and along the route of the operation.

In one early-morning raid in south London police recovered £11,000 in cash. Detective Chief Superintendent Steve Kupis, the head of Operation Maxim, said: "The people being smuggled pay large amounts of money, often thousands of pounds, to be taken to the UK.

"The trouble is they have no security once they are here. They cannot register because they are illegal and if they try to abscond, the debt they owe their smugglers is transferred to their families in their country of origin.

"This is the equivalent of slave labour, but this is nothing new. Many of this country's cafés and takeaways have been staffed by this type of labour for many years. What is new is the unprecedented co-operation with law enforcement agencies across Europe." Police believe smugglers are switching from trafficking drugs to people because of the easy profits.

Assistant Commissioner Tarique Ghaffur, head of the Met's Specialist Crime Directorate, said: "The arrests follow a 12-month intelligence-led operation, which has seen unprecedented co-operation among the Metropolitan Police, the United Kingdom immigration service and with other European law enforcement agencies.

"Many of the crimes impact directly on the diverse communities of London.

"By arresting these people we are making London a safer city for all its inhabitants."