TWELVE people have been arrested for forcing Romanian women to work as prostitutes on the Guadalhorce Industrial Estate in Malaga.

Most are also Romanian, one of them is a minor, and nine have been remanded to prison. Six women who had been suffering threats, abuse and sexual attacks were freed in the operation.

They were allegedly offered work as waitresses or dancers while still in Romania and brought to Spain.

All of them were chosen because the came from poor backgrounds and had family members to look after.

The members of the clan which sexually exploited them, known as the ‘Lalai’ set the prices they had to charge, where they had to work and live and constantly moved them around the region.

Five properties were searched in Torremolinos and Benalmadena where cash and documents of interest to the investigation were seized.