Watches, cars and paintings worth £1 million seized as four women and two men charged in brothel raids

By Owen Sheppard, local democracy reporter

Four women and two men face charges of conspiring to enslave, traffic and sexually exploit victims after four brothels were raided in Westminster.

Watches, cars and paintings worth £1 million were also seized from residential addresses in London and Gloucestershire.

The arrests were made as part of a Met Police crackdown against an organised crime group on April 22, as part of Operation Huai.

The Salvation Army said the group’s alleged victims were from China, with a smaller number of Romanian and UK nationals.

The charity is providing care for the women.

Detective inspector Grant Anderson, of the Modern Slavery Investigation Team, said: “I am delighted that the many months of hard work spent putting this investigation together has resulted in the arrests of six people.”

Among those charged were:

• Jie Zhang, female, 40, of Fountain Park Way, Shepherd’s Bush
• Yuhua Zheng, female, 68, of Fountain Park Way
• Qitao Xu, male, 31 of Bullrush Grove, Hillingdon
• Giulia Manzo, female, 30, of North Kensington
• Wenjing Nong, female, 32, of Tyndall Road, Leyton
• Zeev Zi-Pear, male, 62, of Woodstock Road, Golders Green

They were all charged by postal requisition on Tuesday, April 6, and will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Monday, May 10.