ATHENS – While prostitution is legal in Greece, women still continue being exploited with police saying they had broken up a ring that was bringing in women from East European countries to work at brothels.

The operation was said to be large-scale, reported Kathimerini, giving the women forged residency papers and work permits so they could be put into the brothels around the capital city.

Police said the gang primarily brought in women from Moldova, luring them over the Internet with promises of jobs and other opportunities before making them work as prostitutes against their will.

When they arrived in Greece, however, they were locked up in locked up in homes in Attica, and then, with the use of psychological violence and threats, forced to work in brothels owned by the gang. It wasn’t reported how they were caught.

To increase their profits, the paper said, the gang – no one was identified despite the seriousness of the allegations under Greek privacy laws that hide the names even occasionally of those convicted – fake entry and exit stamps were put on passports to keep the women in the country.

The investigation revealed the gang had been active at least since last September and led to the arrest of six people, including four foreigners in raids on two brothels in central Athens. It wasn’t reported what happened to the women.