|
|
 |
| |
Police empty the raided house in Vine Hill off Clerkenwell Road |
Tip-off sparks raid on ‘brothel’
POLICE raided a house in Holborn they suspected of hosting a vice and cocaine ring in the early hours of Friday morning.
Detectives from Camden’s Crime Squad swooped on the four-storey house in Vine Hill, off Clerkenwell Road, following allegations it was being used as a brothel that also dealt class A drugs.
Two men were arrested for alleged drugs offences and a woman was arrested on suspicion of being concerned in running a brothel.
One of the men was arrested as he called at the house while the police were conducting a search inside.
He was found with a parcel of white powder suspected to be cocaine.
Briefing officers before the 2am raid, Detective Constable Philip Price said: “[The suspects] are believed to be selling drugs and operating a brothel at the address.
“Observation has shown that the house receives numerous callers who only stay for a short while.”
Based on complaints from neighbours and an anonymous tip-off, detectives believe that customers of a nearby table-dancing club were regularly brought to the venue by unlicensed taxi drivers.
They also believe that up to seven women are to be found working at the house every night, with Wednesdays and Thursdays the busiest, and that the house had a potential turnover of £2,000 a night.
Six women were in the house on Friday morning at 2am. Another woman was thought to have fled across the rooftops as police, in riot gear, broke down the door.
The entire house was initially treated as a crime scene as police investigated the possibility that coercion or trafficking for prostitution was involved. |
 |
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
