Suspected sex-slave trafficker arrested

A suspected kingpin in London's multi-million-pound vice trade is under arrest today after a police swoop on a network of saunas and sex shops.

The 45- year- old Polish national was arrested by vice squad officers investigating trafficking of women into the UK from eastern Europe for prostitution. He was held at home in Colindale as police raided 19 addresses across London, including five saunas. He was arrested with two other Polish nationals, a married couple aged 26 and 27. All three were being interviewed at a central London police station this morning.

The raids, codenamed Operation Parque, follow a threemonth undercover operation by Scotland Yard. Police said the operation was continuing.

Several women were questioned by police in the saunas, which were allegedly being run as brothels.

Police sources said the man under house- arrest was alleged to be a well-known figure in the Soho vice trade, which is now dominated by eastern European gangs. He is claimed to have links to the pornography business and so-called "near-beer" waitress bars in Soho involved in fleecing tourists and visitors.

The saunas - in Camden, Southgate, Hornsey and Haringey - were staffed by up to seven women at a time, each bringing in up to ?6,000 a week. As many as 20 women worked for the saunas.

The arrests came as Vullnet Ismailej, an Albanian vice chief who pocketed a fortune from a string of eastern European sex slaves, was jailed for 11 years yesterday by London's Southwark Crown Court. Ismailej, 27, of Wood Green, pleaded guilty to conspiring to bring women to Britain for sexual exploitation between May and October 2004.