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Police bust massive sex trafficking ring

Six men are set to be charged on Wednesday in the Gothenburg District Court on suspicions of operating a comprehensive human trafficking operation which brought young women from Romania to Sweden to sell sex.

According to prosecutors, the trafficking ring is one of the largest of its kind ever uncovered in Sweden.

”There are many people involved who pulled in large amounts from this criminal activity,” said prosecutor Thomas Eliasson in a statement.

Last year in Gothenburg, 255 men were reported and fined for buying sex, a number which led local police to crackdown on the crime.

“This is quite a lot and it is really thanks to the local police in the city who have actively fought against this. An operation with a focus on the crime. You can’t do several small samples from time to time, because then you can’t report 255 men in one year,” Ulla Brehm of the Västra Götaland police told the TT news agency.

Further investigation led police to the discovery of the Romania-linked trafficking ring.

According to Brehm, investigators travelled to Romania in the hunt for the nucleus of the operations.

On the trip, a number of suspects were questioned and search warrants carried out, resulting in six men being arrested and remanded in custody.

Prosecutors plan to present formal charges against the men during a press conference on Wednesday.

Almost all of the women connected to the reported sex cases in Gothenburg are 18-years-old or older and are connected to the Romania-based ring.

The women then performed sex acts for money in playgrounds, cemeteries and parking garages around the city, according to TT.

Exactly how many women were selling sex on the streets in Sweden remains unclear, however.

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POLITICS

Red-green coalition takes power in Gothenburg

The Social Democrats, Green Party and Left Party have managed to oust the right-wing Moderates from power in Gothenburg, despite failing to strike a coalition deal with the Centre Party.

Red-green coalition takes power in Gothenburg

The Social Democrats, Left Party and Green Party will now take over the municipality with Jonas Attenius, group leader for the Social Democrats in the city, becoming the new mayor.

“We three parties are ready to together take responsibility for leading Gothenburg,” Attenius wrote to TT. “I am looking forward immensely to leading Gothenburg in the coming years.” 

The three parties will lead a minority government, with 40 out of 81 mandates, meaning it will dependent on mandates from the Centre Party to pass proposals. 

The three parties had hoped to bring the Centre Party into the coalition, but talks fell apart on Monday,  October 24th. 

“We our going into opposition, but our goal is to be an independent, liberal force, which can negotiate both to the left and to the right,” the party’s group leader in Gothenburg, Emmyly Bönfors told the Göteborgs-Posten newspaper. 

The end of talks in Gothenburg leave the Social Democrats leading coalition governments in all three of Sweden’s major cities, with Karin Wanngård appointed Mayor of Stockholm on October 17th. 

The Social Democrats had unbroken control in Malmö since 1994, after they regained power from the Moderates, who controlled the city from 1991-1994, and also from 1985-1988. 

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