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Gypsy UK child traffickers in court

The brutal leaders of a child trafficking gang accused of forcing nearly 200 gypsy children to beg on the streets of Britain will stand trial next month (sept).

Prosecutors announced today (monday) that 26 modern day Fagins will appear in court in Romania on September 27 to face child trafficking charges.

Court documents reveal that 181 children were sent to the UK by the gang, who travelled all over Romania to snatch children from the poorest families.

Disabled children are said to have been particularly sought after because they made more effective beggars.

The terrified youngsters were beaten and abused and put to work begging and stealing in British cities and some were even said to have been disfigured to increase their earning potential on the street.

The 26 defendants - from Tandarei in Ialomita county, southern Romania - are also charged with money laundering, firearms offences and membership of local mafia clans.

The gang was cracked in a series of arrests after a joint operation by British and local police.

Eighteen of the gang are already in custody awaiting the trial.

Prosecutors from Romania's Directorate for Investigating Organised Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) say the gangsters put the children through a terrifying academy of crime before transporting them illegally to the UK.

They say that they arranged the transport and bogus travel documents to get the children to Britain and then held them hostage in a series of safe houses run by the gangs.

Documents obtained by Central European News show that prosecutors say victims were made to beg, wash car windscreens or taught how to be pickpockets or shoplift.

Others were taught how to steal cash from shops and restaurants while others were given instructions in burglary while under constant supervision by a gang member, say the court documents.

Every penny they made was taken by the gang members.

The leaders of the group are identified in court documents as Constantin Radu, known as "Titi Aghiotantu", Nicolae Schian, nicknamed "Poligrad", Tase Dumitru, nicknamed "Chinezul The Chinese", Mircea Niculae. known as "Bocioc", and Gheorghe Ion Dragusin, also known as "Frant".

The trial will take place at Harghita Criminal Court after a massive investigation involving more than 300 police officers.

Dozens of firearms like AK47 assault rifles and grenade launchers were seized in raids on more than 30 properties and hundreds of thousands of pounds of cash, jewellery, cars and property were confiscated along with bogus child travel documents.

A police spokesman said: "The children were told their families would be at risk if they tried to flee, and families were told the children would be harmed if they made a complaint to authorities."

Police are believed to have acted after investigating the massive amounts of money flowing into the gypsy community at Tandarei where locals were building huge palaces but had no apparent income.

Norbert Ceipek, who is the head of the Augarten crisis centre in Vienna Austria that has worked with trafficked children since Romania joined the EU, said: "Even the good thieves and pickpockets end up in prostitution past the age of 14, because they cease to be useful as they can then be arrested by police.

"They usually work as prostitutes up to 18, when they get married and have children of their own. Those children face the same fate and the circle goes on.

"The children don't have any access to education and never get any real chance to fit into normal society. But most of the families, and even the children, do not feel they are being victimised.

"What is happening to them is the only thing they've known. The whole system of values is turned upside down: a child is appreciated and loved if it earns money by stealing, whereas sending it to school or integrating it into society is seen as a waste of time and money."

According to social workers who have rescued child victims in Austria, some Roma communities punish families which refuse to rent their child to traffickers.

Sanctions can range from ostracism and fines to violence or even murder. Other parents believe the traffickers' fiction that their children will enjoy a better way of life in the West, and will even send money home.

Romanian officials calculate that a typical pimp operating 15 girls can earn about 7,000 GBP a day and slightly less if they are running pickpockets and thieves.

It adds up to an annual income of 2.5 million GBP. Many pimps operate in networks of 50 youngsters, whose "group turnover" could total 130 million GBP.

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