Operation Ruby nets 13 traffickers

The number of people charged under Operation Ruby has now reached 13. The operation is an investigation into people trafficking and includes the UK Border Agency in conjunction with Northampton’s police team East Midlands Foreign National Crime unit in a multi-agency taskforce. The operation also includes members of the Gangmasters’ Licensing Authority (GLA), the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) and the UK Human Trafficking Centre (UKHTC).

The taskforce has been investigating people trafficking within and to Britain from a range of countries including Hungary, the Czech Republic, Romania, Poland and Slovakia. Also under investigation are allegations of huge amounts of money laundering, with an estimated £10 million believed to have been fraudulently manufactured across a host of fake companies set up to conceal the activities.

The thirteen individuals charged over the affair are all due to face the Magistrates Court at Wellingborough, Northamptonshire on the 15th and 22nd of December this year. Those involved include a 45-year-old woman and a 50-year-old man, along with four Indian men from Kettering in Northamptonshire. Also involved were three men from the west Midlands and a 27-year-old Portuguese national from Lincolnshire along with three Polish nationals from Coventry and Birmingham.

Some 60 migrant workers from Eastern Europe are also being treated as potential victims and witnesses to the gang activities. The 60 workers were hired to pick leeks by the criminal gang and may have information on illicit activity by the group.

The GLA said that the multi-agency collaboration was exemplary and it is now up to individual agencies to pursue their own charges independently.