IHT.com
The Associated Press – Sao Paulo, Brazil – Brazilian police made ten arrests as they broke up an international human trafficking ring that allegedly specialized in sending transvestite prostitutes to two European cities, a police spokeswoman said Wednesday.
Federal police in Sao Paulo arrested two organizers of the ring in Sao Paulo and eight others in the midwestern city of Uberlandia, as well as a number of transvestite prostitutes bound for Milan, Italy, and Madrid, Spain.
Brazilian police had been working with authorities in Italy and Spain to crack down on the ring run for about three months by transvestites, a spokeswoman said, speaking on condition of anonymity according to agency policy.
The Brazilian ring charged the prostitutes US$10,000 to US$12,500 (?8,000 to ?10,000) to travel to Europe and work there, according to the Web site of Rio de Janeiro’s O Globo newspaper.