Romanian Gangs Flood London With Pickpockets & Prostitutes Ahead Of Olympics
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Romanian crime syndicates have been transporting busloads of beggars, pickpockets and prostitutes into London every day for the last three months, said officials from the Westminster Council on Tuesday, as the city prepares for a massive influx of tourists ahead of the upcoming Olympic Games.
Romanian crime syndicates have been transporting busloads of beggars, pickpockets and prostitutes into London every day for the last three months, said officials from the Westminster Council on Tuesday, as the city prepares for a massive influx of tourists ahead of the upcoming Olympic Games.
“The reality is that coach transport into London represents an immigration sieve,” warned Westminster councillor Nickie Aiken, spokeswoman for children, young people and community protection, in an interview with The Independent.
“There are no effective border controls on those coming into the U.K. and making their way to Victoria coach station and we are paying the price of that with a sudden influx of eastern European rough sleepers – especially Romanians – around Marble Arch,” she said.
According to Aiken, the Romanian crime gangs bring the migrants over with specific instructions on where to “work”.
Some are understood to have even come armed with Google Map printouts of London tourist locations, which have drawn crowds of rough sleepers in recent weeks.
[quote]”This is being systematically organised from Romania and those running this cynical racket are the only ones who profit from it,” said Aiken.[/quote]“The problem for London is that one of London’s most iconic landmarks is being turned into an impromptu campsite just 95 days ahead of the London Olympics.
“The risk is that we could get a torrent of people coming here from eastern Europe in the deluded belief that London can provide a more lucrative living ahead of the Games.”
On Tuesday, the Daily Mail reported that London Police had discovered over 50 women believed to have been trafficked into the area to work as prostitutes. Four female beggars were also arrested for using babies, as young as three weeks old, in their operation.
The British paper also claimed that the police had seen a steady increase in the activity of Romanian criminal syndicates since the country joined the EU in 2007; and that the gangs may have been behind nine out of ten cashpoint robberies in the capital, which have netted over £30million a year.
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[quote]’We suspect that we may be witnessing the first pro-active entrepreneurial endeavours by organised criminal enterprise ahead of the Olympics,” said Westminster crime reduction officer Claire Hardy to the Daily Express.[/quote]“We have always had an issue with eastern Europeans coming here,” added Aiken. “But the last three weeks have seen them coming in an intensity we have never witnessed before.”
“We haven’t got the resources to deal with this. We give them tickets back to Romania but it’s like a revolving door.”
