Roma families traded women on the strength of their stealing skill
Three Croatian Roma families traded women on the strength of their stealing skills and used children like conscripts to a criminal army, a French court was told Monday.
A total of 27 people aged between 19 and 55 are charged by the court in Nancy, eastern France, with offences ranging from criminal association to people trafficking in a trial taking place against the background of a highly charged debate over the treatment of Roma migrants from eastern Europe.
Gilles Weintz, the police officer who took charge of a complex probe into the families' activities, said they were behind more than 100 robberies carried out in 2011 alone, in France and neighbouring parts of Belgium and Germany.
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The children meanwhile were expected to bring in up to 5,000 euros per month each in the form of stolen goods that were then sold on through fences in France and Germany, helping to finance luxury lifestyles for the clan chiefs, some of whom owned upscale properties in Slavonski Brod in Croatia.
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