Three women charged after Irish prostitution raids
Three women arrested as part of a cross-border police operation into organised prostitution, will appear in court in Belfast later.
The women, two aged 23 and one aged 27, have all been charged with brothel keeping and possession of criminal property.
Five people were arrested in Northern Ireland and three in the Republic of Ireland during a series of searches.
Three suspected victims of human trafficking were rescued.
The two other women arrested in Northern Ireland have been released on bail pending further enquiries.
The PSNI say they believe 10 out of 20 addresses they searched across Northern Ireland were being used as brothels.
A large amount of documents, cash, mobile phones and computers were seized by the PSNI and gardai.
The operation on Tuesday involved 170 police officers across Northern Ireland and more than 200 gardai, and had been planned for several weeks.
It is believed 114 properties were searched in the Republic.
PSNI Detective Superintendent Philip Marshall said this was only the start of the operation.
"The operation is continuing and there is the potential for more searches and more arrests in the days ahead," he said.
"This operation is focused on gathering information and intelligence and evidence on the extent of the problem of organised prostitution in Ireland.
"We then have an assessment and then we will target in the future what we suspect is a number of crime gangs who were involved in this particular crime type."
Det Supt Marshall said millions of pounds were being spent in the island of Ireland every year purchasing sexual services.
"There is a demand for those sexual services and organised criminals are feeding that demand.
"They are bringing vulnerable men and women into both parts of Ireland for the purposes of sexual exploitation.
"It is large-scale, it is organised and there are multi-million pound criminal profits being made.
Detectives received support from women's help organisations who deal with rescued victims of trafficking, and representatives from the Garda were in the Belfast command room.
The three suspected victims were taken to police stations to be interviewed by specially-trained officers, and they will be offered counselling.
The officer leading the PSNI's side of Operation Quest said the searches were carried out across all counties in Northern Ireland and policing regions in the Irish Republic.
The investigation is being assisted by the Serious and Organised Crime Agency, Europol and the UK Border Agency.
In February, justice minister David Ford said the PSNI had identified 26 potential victims in Northern Ireland since April 2011.
They came from countries including Ghana, Zimbabwe, China and Slovakia.
The Northern Ireland Council for Ethnic Minorities has claimed that Northern Ireland has the fastest growing sex industry in any part of the UK.