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A sweeping international crackdown on human trafficking has resulted in the identification of 1,194 potential victims and the arrest of 158 suspects, INTERPOL announced Friday.
The six-day operation, dubbed Operation Global Chain, took place from June 1 to 6 and involved nearly 15,000 law enforcement officers from 43 countries. Coordinated by Austria and Romania with support from INTERPOL, Europol, and Frontex, the operation targeted criminal networks trafficking individuals for sexual exploitation, forced criminality, and forced begging, with a focus on underage victims.
In addition to the arrests, authorities identified 205 more suspects and opened 182 new investigations, 15 of which span multiple countries. Fourteen INTERPOL Notices and Diffusions were issued as a result of the operation.
Victims were reported from 64 countries, with the majority originating from Romania, Ukraine, Colombia, and China. Most adult victims were trafficked for sexual exploitation, while minors were often forced into begging or street-level criminal activity. Many children were exploited by members of their own families, making rescue and safeguarding efforts especially complex.
In Brazil, federal police dismantled a trafficking network that lured victims with fake job advertisements before sending them to Myanmar for sexual exploitation. One victim was located and safeguarded through an INTERPOL Blue Notice. In Italy, authorities raided several massage parlors, identifying 75 potential victims from Romania, China, and Colombia and arresting suspects from multiple nationalities. Ukrainian police uncovered an online trafficking scheme that recruited women for sexual exploitation in Berlin, leading to the arrest of a female suspect. Romanian authorities arrested nine individuals for trafficking eight children between the ages of 7 and 15, while Austrian law enforcement dismantled a Romanian crime group that used the “lover-boy” method to lure and exploit victims across the European Union.
Significant seizures were made during the operation, including €277,669 in cash, one metric ton of cannabis, nearly 900 other narcotics, 30 firearms, 15 explosive components, 65 fraudulent documents, and five real estate properties.
David Caunter, INTERPOL’s director pro tempore of Organized and Emerging Crime, called human trafficking “a brutal and devastating crime” and highlighted the importance of international collaboration in combating it.
A coordination center in Warsaw, Poland, was staffed by 33 officials from INTERPOL, Europol, Frontex, and other partner agencies to support real-time intelligence sharing during the operation. Authorities carried out inspections of more than 924,000 people, 842,000 ID documents, 182,000 vehicles, and thousands of flights, vessels, and locations.
Operation Global Chain was conducted under the framework of the European Multidisciplinary Platform Against Criminal Threats (EMPACT), with financial support from INTERPOL’s I-FORCE Project and the German Federal Foreign Office. Participating countries spanned Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Africa, underscoring the transnational nature of human trafficking and the global response required to combat it.
With information from Interpol.
