Agents of the National Police have released a 19-year-old who had been held hostage and subjected to all sorts of harassment by the head of a network dedicated to the sexual exploitation of women.

  Two gangs were broken up, run by a Romanian national and his nephew, who forced women into prostitution and then took most of the money earned.  The girls were branded with barcodes, showing their ownership to the gang and any subsequent debt.  A total of 22 people were arrested, including the gang leaders, and officers seized three illegal guns, with ammunition, simulated weapons, numerous knives, swords and machetes and, some 140,000 euro in cash, more than half of which was hidden in a double roof of the house of one of the leader; gold jewellery, five vehicles, including three luxury cars, as well as numerous other artefacts.