WILTSHIRE Police say they are dealing with up to 30 pop up brothels in Swindon’s residential areas every week.

The estimate comes six months after the force was involved in the arrest and detention of 16 members of an organised crime gang in Romania who set up brothels in the town.

As reported in the Advertiser, more than 40 potential victims of human trafficking were uncovered in the raids.

At that stage the Wiltshire team had been investigating the trafficking of women for prostitution for some time because the criminals used Swindon as a base for their temporary brothels.

What they uncovered triggered operation Zephyr, a joint agency investigation with the South West Regional Organised Crime Squad and led to the early morning raids in Ploiesti carried out by officers from the Ploiesti Brigade.

Zephyr detectives also went to Romania to help the operation.

Speaking at the time, senior investigating officer Det Insp Tony Hubbard said they had been working with organisations including Europol, the UK Embassy in Bucharest, Romanian authorities and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to track down the human traffickers.

Months before the raids it was revealed that the number of suspected brothels in Swindon had almost doubled between 2014 and 2015 to 112. Police put it down to increased awareness and said tackling the problem was a priority.

Now the force says it is monitoring between 170 and 190 women who they say are involved in the sex trade, mostly in Swindon and up to 40 foreign prostitutes were advertising for trade in the town every week.

Det Sgt Chris Hitchcock said: "Of these 40, we estimate they populate 20 to 30 brothels in short-term to medium-term rental properties."

Landlords providing short term accommodation have been warned to make sure their properties were not being used as brothels and to be on the alert for tell-tale signs like paperless transactions, cash payments, multiple occupancy and approaches by groups made up of two women and a man.

BBC Inside Out West will air a feature on the problem tomorrow night at 7.30pm.