25 people have been arrested and a network of brothels have been shut down in Cambridgeshire in a police campaign against human trafficking for the sex trade.

Operation Radium's been running since last August as part of a UK national campaign to stop the sex trade and rescue young victims. Since the campaign's launch police have found criminal gangs believed to be responsible for trafficking women from the Far East, Eastern Europe and Africa into Cambridgeshire for use as prostitutes. Officers say that their work in Cambridgeshire has provided crucial evidence that's allowed them to close down at least one network of foreign run brothels across East Anglia.

Ten women have been rescued and returned to their home countries or been taken to safe accommodation and so far five people have been charged in connection with two cases of trafficking.

Detective Chief Inspector Kevin Vanterpool, the head of Operation Radium, said: "In the six months since the public launch of this operation, we have taken decisive action which has hit hard at the sex trafficking trade and the activities of those behind it.

"Much of the intelligence which has helped us has come from members of the public who have called, sometimes with vital clues.

"Operation Radium is continuing. We are determined, with the help of the public for which we are very grateful, to put an end to a trade which destroys the lives of young women."