The largest modern-day slavery ring in the United Kingdom had more than 400 people to work for way less than 75 cents a day and live in squalor — while their “masters” made millions, authorities revealed on Friday.
Prosecutors said that a gang of eight citizens of Poland – five men and three women – preyed on the homeless, former convicts and alcoholics in Poland and trickily got them to Britain with false promises of well-paid work.
Moreover, the victims – believed to number more than 400 in the West Midlands – were forced to live in rat-infested houses and work really menial jobs, making about 50 pence or about 63 cents for a day’s work. However, their masters earned some $2.5 million and lived very luxurious lifestyles.
The so-called “masters” – who the police say are members and associates of two crime families, according to the BBC – have since been convicted of slavery, trafficking and money-laundering offenses during two trials.
Reporting restrictions were lifted Friday, allowing details of the harrowing network’s collapse to be published. The accounts of more than 90 victims were heard by jurors, but it is believed that at least 350 more were exploited by the gang.
“This was trafficking and exploitation on a massive scale; this gang treated these people, their fellow countrymen, as commodities purely for their own greed,” West Midlands Police Det. Chief Inspector Nick Dale said in a statement.
“What they did was abhorrent: they subjected victims to a demi-life of misery and poverty. They forced them into work and, if they objected, they were beaten or threatened with violence and told family members back home would be attacked.”