Romanian and French police dismantled a prostitution ring and arrested suspects on Monday (December 10 ) who were forcing Romanian and Bulgarian women to work as prostitutes on a road in Central France, according to AFP.

Several arrests were also made in Romania in the presence of French investigators and another four pimps were detained ahead of their extradition to France under a European warrant.

The persons arrested include a woman, who appears to be the head of the organization, which she was running with members of her family. According to the Romanian police, she owned a “part of a road” on the national road 7 in Loiret, Central France, where the women were forced to work and give all their earnings to the organization.

At the same time, one of her "representatives" in France, a man arrested in Bourges who was watching her girls, had his own prostitution ring, bringing women to work and forcing them to repay him a "debt of EUR 5,000".

For several years, dozens of young women, including many foreigners, especially Bulgarian and Romanian women, have been forced to work as prostitutes in rural areas along National Road 7, which connects Paris to South Eastern France.

Over 80 percent of the 18,000 to 20,000 of prostitutes in France are foreigners, compared with 20 percent in the 90s, according to a parliamentary report.

Ioana Toader, ioana.toader@romania-insider.com