FINNISH COURT CONVICTS 3 FOR PIMPING 20 ROMANIAN WOMEN

The Helsinki District Court handed down prison sentences to three Romanians who operated a nationwide pimping ring in Finland over the past seven years, Yle news agency reported.

The defendants engaged more than 20 Romanian women in prostitution from 2013 to 2020, according to the court, which said the operation was both large-scale and organized.

"The trio organized a weekly exchange of the prostituted women between different Finnish cities in order to maximize profits, and continuously recruited new women from Romania to Finland.

Recruiters seduced women in an effort to lure them, and several women had a relationship with one of the men when they arrived in Finland," the court said in a statement.

The Helsinki District Court sentenced Danut Mladinescu, 38, to three years in prison and fined him a total of 400,000 euros in damages to be paid to three victims.

The court also ordered Mladinescu to cede more than 17,000 euros in criminal proceeds to the state.

Cristian Zavoianu, 36, was also sentenced to three years in jail and ordered to cede more than 86,000 euros in criminal proceeds together with Ionut Zavoianu, 35, who was sentenced to two years and four months in prison.

In addition to the trio, the court issued suspended sentences to two other individuals involved in the operation.

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