Officers swooped down on a house in Magadino, near Locarno, where six Romanian women were found with eight clients, cantonal police said on Thursday. The raid took place on Wednesday night as part of Operation Domino, a campaign to root out illegal prostitution in the canton. The manager of the Magadino house, a year-old Lugano man, was questioned and charged with promoting illegal prostitution before being released, Ticino police said. The six women were reported to immigration authorities for unlawful prostitution.
Police said only two of them had proper permits. A woman inspector from the Romanian national police was involved in the operation. She works with a division of the force dedicated to combatting organized crime and human trafficking. International policing cooperation of this nature is being coordinated by a working group set up by Simonetta Sommaruga, federal minister of justice and police.
Operation Domino has led to the closure of more than two dozen prostitution rings. The Ticino prosecutor estimated that people had been arrested between March and July this year alone, including women. Rival gangs from Eastern Europe have become increasingly involved in illegal prostitution rings in Ticino, according to police reports.
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Jobs in Switzerland Browse jobs. Email newsletters Newsletter sign-up Edit my subscriptions. Other pages Noticeboard Discussion forum Site search. Prostitutes caught red-handed in Ticino Malcolm Curtis. Share this article. Malcolm Curtis. In the latest of a series of raids, Ticino cantonal police have shut down a bordello operating with illegal prostitutes from Romania, aided by law enforcement officials from that country.
