AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - European police forces have arrested 38 people in a swoop on traffickers suspected of forcing women and children into the sex trade, the EU’s police agency Europol says.
EU members Greece, Italy and Portugal joined forces with 10 southeast European countries in 134 investigations against 110 suspected traffickers.
The arrests, the bulk of which were in Romania, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Greece, were made in May in an operation codenamed "Leda". Details of the international swoop were not released until now for operational reasons.
"The target areas were... in particular, the Balkans, where an increase has been noted in the trade of women and minors into the EU member states for the purpose of sexual exploitation," Europol said.
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Greece was one of 15 countries accused by the United States last month of failing to do enough to stop the trafficking of people forced into servitude or the sex trade.
Bosnia, another of those accused, also took part in the police operation along with Albania, Croatia, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, Hungary, Slovenia, Serbia and Montenegro.
