A major trial opened in western Germany on Tuesday against 10 defendants accused of running a human trafficking and prostitution ring.
Prosecutors accuse the 10 defendants of trafficking women and transgender people from Thailand to Germany and forcing them into prostitution. According to the indictment, the victims had to pay off their travel expenses by working in brothels.
The defendants, aged between 29 and 64, are charged with commercial and organized human trafficking, forced prostitution and money laundering.
They are said to have played various roles within the network, from organizing the system to serving as drivers and running the brothels.
One of the defendants holds a British passport and the others are Thai citizens, with one also holding a German passport and another a Swedish passport.
Some of the money earned in the brothels – which were mainly located in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia – was transported in cash to Thailand by plane and exchanged there.
In one case described by the public prosecutor’s office, €110,000 ($128,000) were smuggled to Asia from Hamburg Airport in two packets of sweets.
Bielefeld Regional Court has scheduled trial dates until the end of April 2026.
A man arrives to the Bielefeld District Court to attend a trial against a gang of traffickers of prostitutes to Germany. The ten defendants, aged between 29 and 64, are suspected of smuggling Thai women and transsexuals into Germany on a commercial and gang basis. Friso Gentsch/dpa