Triads taking women to UK for prostitution

Triads are smuggling women into Britain to work in brothels, a national police report says.

The triads are behind brothels in London, Manchester, and Glasgow and detectives believe they exist in most cities with a large Chinese community.

The report was drawn up for the Home Office and police forces nationwide by Inspector Theo Dawson, the former head of the Metropolitan Police's vice unit.

It says the triads 'continue to open up new brothels and bring females into the country with considerable ease'.

Since 1992, police have raided six triad-run brothels in London in which they found about 10 women from Hong Kong, Malaysia and Thailand who had been brought into the country illegally.

The triads involved were the 14K and Wo Shing Wo.