According to the federal prosecutor’s office, Belgian police arrested up to 25 individuals on suspicion of trafficking women from China for prostitution.
Belgian authorities raided 26 residences in Belgium, as well as in the Spanish towns of Alicante and Barcelona.
One suspect was also seized in Spain, according to authorities, with Belgian officials requesting that the person be extradited to Belgium.
Three of those held are Belgians, with the others being Chinese nationals.
Belgian police also claimed to have identified 20 accused victims of human trafficking, all of whom were Chinese, during operations in Antwerp, Charleroi, Louvain, Neufchateau, and Brussels.
Prosecutors said that they were aware of an increase in the number of Chinese sex workers in Belgium.
They said that the criminal organisation under investigation recruited women in China and had them go to Europe, where they were “sexually exploited, mostly in private prostitution.”
According to authorities, the ladies were also coerced to give up the majority of their earnings.
The suspected members of the prostitution ring advertised sex on internet portals, and customers scheduled meetings with the women there. They scheduled internet rentals for sex trafficking, such as hotels or vacation houses.
The women were also “often moved around Europe,” and many of them had legitimate European residence documents, which “increased their dependency” on the organisation, according to the office.
According to the bureau, the criminal organisation made enormous quantities of money and transported it outside via legitimate and criminal routes.
Prosecutors stated that several of the victims uncovered by police on Tuesday were housed in specialised reception facilities.
Eurojust, the European Union’s Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation, and Europol, the European Union’s law enforcement agency, were also involved in the investigation.
