Police say traffickers aimed to recruit teenage girls as models, aiming to force them into prostitution
TIRANA, March 2 – Police said they have arrested three people charged with human trafficking. A fourth person has been declared wanted and at large.
The arrested men are accused of trafficking minors and women destined for prostitution.
The arrest came after a nationwide operation called “Modelja” (“The Model” in English) following an operation that took place over several months in the cities of Tirana, Berat and Korça.
The men arrested — Klajdi Ceka, 25, Besnik Strolla, 25, and Sotiraq Dhima, 55 — tried to recruit girls in very rural areas, promising them a better life abroad where they were supposed to work as models, police said in a statement.
They are accused of organizing the trafficking of a 15-year old girl abroad and having recruited other minors to be taken abroad illegally, mainly to Italy, where they would be forced into prostitution.
