These vulnerable girls were visited by about 400 different people

10:00am Saturday 17th May 2008

THE policeman spearheading the investigation which smashed a "sophisticated" people trafficking ring believes the main players have now been brought to justice.

Detective Inspector Mark Loader headed up Oper-ation Harmony in which police raided five brothels, including one in Worcester, and convictions for several suspects including the ring's boss - or snakehead - Fei Zhang and his woman deputy Su Zhen Xu.

Following sentencing at Worcester Crown Court, MrLoader said: "We're satisfied on the basis this is their first conviction.

"It's a good result and will hopefully act as a deterrent for people exporting people and encourage victims of such a dreadful crime to come forward."

He revealed investigating officers had used numerous covert techniques to gather crucial evidence before officers raided the brothels and made arrests in co-ordinated strikes between Friday, March 21, and Sunday, March 23, 2007.

Top US language experts also helped translate an unusual dialect used by the ringleaders, providing the proof needed to arrest Fei Zhang.

DI Loader said: "This was a very sophisticated operation. We have dismantled an organised crime network operating across the whole of the UK."

He explained how linchpin Fei Zhang headed a well-organised network of brothel managers or uncles' responsible for grossing about £500,000 in a year.

The premises were advertised in local newspapers as massage parlours, or escort agencies, where women mostly from China and Thailand were employed after being brought illegally to the UK.

Mr Loader said: "Fei Zhang was a chef at a takeaway in Essex and on the face of it a respectable businessman but he managed and ran an organised crime network with his second-in- command. He was a very astute individual. Very hands-off and we knew we needed to put a bit more work into him."

Fei Zhang was only arrested and charged following the raids with evidence taken from telephone conversations he had with Su Zhen Xu, while the latter was in prison. Investigators flew to New York to get the conversations in the unusual Chinese Fuzhou dialect translated by a private firm.

The multi-agency operation also received back-up from the UK Human Traff-icking Centre in Sheffield, the UK Immigration Ser-vice, the police Joint Oper-ations Unit in Kent and the Poppy Project charity.

Mr Loader praised the work of his investigative team and that of staff involved at the different agencies.

During surveillance on the brothel in Broad Street, Worcester, officers recorded between 300 and 400 different people visiting it in the three months before it was shut down.

When officers raided the brothel, on Friday, March 21, they found a 28-year-old girl of Thai origin working there. Mr Loader said: "These vulnerable girls weren't under physical duress but because of their culture they were under mental duress from the threat of their families back in China being told they were working as prostitutes."

Peter Tooke, CPS West Mercia senior casework lawyer, said: "I hope the outcome will allay the concerns of the communities in which the brothels operated and they will be reassured that the CPS will deal with such matters robustly."

FACTFILE The term snakehead' refers to the bosses of people smuggling or trafficking rings and comes from a literal translation of the Mandarin for head of man-snakes'. The latter is a term referring to the often vulnerable victims of smuggling rings.

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