EAST Lancashire’s top police officer has said everything possible is being done to tackle human trafficking and sexual exploitation in the area.

Chief Superintendent Matt Horn, the divisional commander, made the comments in the wake of last week’s human trafficking raids which saw two men and a woman arrested.

MORE TOP STORIES:

The raid was the third such operation in five months in Blackburn as police look to crackdown on women being trafficked to East Lancashire from Romania to be forced to work as prostitutes.

Chf Supt Horn said his officers are coming across the problem more often and the arrests show they are taking the issue seriously.

He said: “There is a problem and there are issues of human trafficking and child sexual exploitation.

“That’s something that we have come across more and more, it’s something that we’re educating our officers to look out for and recognise the signs of and we won’t shy away from dealing with it.

“If we come across the signs of that and the vulnerabilities I would expect my officers to deal with that.

“We have appointed a lead officer, DCI Sion Hall.

“There are links to organised crime, possibly internationally, in the human trafficking cases.

“It’s an increasing issue that we’re alive to and we’re putting some resources to it to recognise it.

“When we find it, and we are looking for it, we will make sure that we deal with it.”

In the latest phase of Operation Proteus, police executed warrants at a house in Wensley Road, where they found three women, aged 20, 24 and 34, thought to be Romanian.

At a property in St James Road, they found two women of Eastern European descent aged 25 and 32.

All five women were taken to a place of safety and were being supported by specially trained officers.

As a result of last Wednesday’s operation two men, aged 21 and 28, were arrested at the house in St James’s Road on suspicion of human trafficking.

A 29-year-old woman was arrested at the property in Wensley Road over the same allegation.

All three have been released on bail until October 4.

Anyone with information about human trafficking, slavery or forced labour in their area is urged to call police on the non-emergency number 101.