ROMANIAN PROSECUTORS have formally charged eight men accused of trafficking women from Romania to Ireland.
Prosecutors say the gang, co-ordinated by a jailed gang leader, was also behind an attempt to shoot dead a rival Romanian gangster.
Eight members of the gang have been charged with threatening and blackmailing women to work as prostitutes in Dublin. Police say others are under investigation and may be charged later.
Also charged were seven of the women accused of working as VIP prostitutes for the gang in Dublin.
The charges follow the arrest in April of dozens of people following an investigation by the Romanian Directorate for Investigating Organised Crime and Terrorism.
The arrests came after police were tipped off in 2008 about the gang. The investigation led them to the jailed gang leader they believe is responsible for the trafficking operation. Romanian police worked together with Irish counterparts on the operation.
The prosecutors say the gang earned hundreds of thousands of pounds from prostitution in Ireland as well as their other activities, and the gang leader co-ordinated the activity from jail, directly or through other people. The gang used 10 women from Dambovita county, aged from 19 to 30, authorities believe.
Prosecutors claim that the criminal network of the gang had also drifted into so-called cyber crimes as well as money-laundering and robbery. The gang members are accused of running a loan shark and protection racket business in which 10 people were forced to pay hundreds of thousands of pounds.
In May, a potential gangland murder was prevented by police after a member of the gang accused of involvement in the trafficking of women into Ireland was arrested at a courthouse in Romania with a loaded gun. It is alleged he went there to shoot a member of a rival gang.
Police say the intended victim of the shooting was blamed by the jailed gang leader for his arrest in France, which resulted in his receiving a seven-year sentence for trafficking offences.