Police Scotland have vowed to crack down on "insidious" human traffickers following the conviction of a Glasgow gang after a five-year investigation.
Three men - Vojtech Gombar, 61, Anil Wagle, 37 and Ratislav Adam, 31 - and 28-year-old woman Jana Sandorova were found at the High Court in Glasgow today of selling women for prostitution and slavery between 2011 and 2017.
Police say their crimes "exploited vulnerable women using violence, threats and false promises all for financial gain without a single thought for the suffering and terror these women had to endure."
Over the course of the trial the court heard how the young women and teenage girls - some who were pregnant - were coerced into travelling to the UK with the promise of better lives.
READ MORE: Glasgow human trafficking gang jailed over prostitution and slavery ring
In one case, the court heard how a young woman was sold for £10,000 outside Primark on Argyle Street.
The pregnant victim was then held in a Govanhill flat for around a month before escaping by jumping from a window.
Other girls spoke of being sold to Pakistani men for sham marriages to try to obtain visas for their 'husbands'.
Police Scotland identified 14 victims of the Glasgow human trafficking gang.
They worked with officers from several UK forces, Eurpol, Eurojust and the Solvak Police Force to form a joint investigations team.
A parallel court case is ongoing in Slovakia featuring a further six crime group affiliates.
Detective Inspector Steven McMillan, senior investigating officer, said: “This has been a complex and challenging international investigation.
"We identified 14 victims, all of whom were vulnerable and all of whom were targeted because of that vulnerability by people within their own community.
“They were transported across Europe by gang members, into the UK and then to Glasgow. Some of them were sexually exploited before being sold and forced into sham marriages."
READ MORE: Woman ‘sold for £10,000 outside city Primark store’
Detective Superintendent Fil Capaldi, head of Police Scotland’s National Human Trafficking Unit, said: “This detailed and complex investigation into a Slovakian Organised Crime Group spanned UK and international jurisdictions.
“Throughout, we worked closely with other UK forces, Europol, Eurojust and the Slovak Police Force, without whom we wouldn’t have been able to ensure that those involved faced justice here in Scotland.
“Human trafficking is an insidious crime.
"This crime group exploited vulnerable women using violence, threats and false promises all for financial gain without a single thought for the suffering and terror these women had to endure.
"Yet those women bravely spoke out both in Scotland and Slovakia and I hope that today’s verdict provides closure, so they can now move on in some way and rebuild their lives.
“Police Scotland will pursue traffickers relentlessly.
"We will continue to work with our network of contacts in the UK, with international law enforcement and other agencies to rid our country of trafficking and all forms of exploitation.”
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