Prostitution Raids Collar Brothel-Keepers In NI

Three women pleaded guilty to keeping a brothel and having criminal property today.

The women, all in their twenties and from Poland, were arrested at a brothel in Belfast's Alfred Street yesterday after police raided properties across Ireland and Northern Ireland.

They were 23-year-old Milena Halina Tarnowska, Sandra Polewska, 24, and 27-year-old Marta Kozakowska.

A prosecution lawyer said no-one else ran the brothel and there was no allegation of human trafficking.

Kozakowska admitted a third offence of obstructing police by swallowing a mobile phone SIM card when police entered their apartment.

The women have been given two-month suspended sentences and a defence lawyer said they were all planning to leave the country.

Five people were arrested in Northern Ireland and three in the Republic of Ireland during the searches, which came about as a result of a cross-border collaboration between the PSNI and the Gardai.

Three foreign nationals were rescued from brothels and are believed to have been victims of human trafficking.

They will be offered counselling.

Operation Quest, which had been planned for several weeks, involved more than 370 officers across Northern Ireland and the Republic.

Cash, documents, mobile phones and computers were seized in the raids.

PSNI Detective Superintendent said the raids would continue.

He said: "“The primary focus of this operation was to gather information and evidence on those individuals we believed to be involved in organised prostitution, money laundering and, in effect, organised crime. Our enquiries have established that prostitution was being organised on a cross-border basis so we have adopted a cross-border approach to tackle those organised criminals who are intent on making profits from vulnerable members of society. Police officers, and colleagues in a number of partner agencies, will also work to gather information and evidence in relation to human trafficking, given the exploitation of vulnerable individuals within the so-called sex industry."

Two other women arrested in Northern Ireland during the major operation have been released on bail.

(NE)