Gardaí target Race Week prostitution ring

BY ENDA CUNNINGHAM

Undercover Gardaí will be carrying out covert surveillance on gangs of Romanian sex workers touting for business on the streets of Galway in a major crackdown on prostitution during Race Week, the Galway City Tribune has learned.

Brothels are also set be targeted by the guards as part of ongoing investigations into the sex trade here. The crackdown comes as ‘street workers’ flock to Galway to prey on drunken revellers, while an investigation by this newspaper has found at least 30 professional ‘escorts’ are already operating from apartments and hotels in the city.

It also comes following the conviction earlier this month of a 29 year-old woman from Renmore for running a brothel in Sligo.

Gardaí have expressed concerns at the number of women offering sex for sale on the city’s streets – a ‘phenomenon’ which had died out in the early 1990s in Galway.

“It is of concern to us. Groups of people come into Galway at the weekends and target the very busy city centre areas in droves, pick-pocketing and becoming involved in prostitution. They will probably be flocking here from all around for Race Week.

“Plainclothes Gardaí are monitoring this situation on an ongoing basis and a number of people have been apprehended. Of course, we will be stepping up this surveillance during the Races,” a Garda spokesperson said.

Gangs of Roma gypsies regularly target drunken men in the city centre, offering to perform acts for €50 – in many cases, the ‘customer’ then has their wallet stolen, and many are reluctant to make formal complaints to Gardaí because of the circumstances.

For more on this story, see the Galway City Tribune