Nineteen women have been rescued across England after several dawn raids in a police crack down on sex trafficking.

In the largest nationwide crackdown to date, more than 50 officers swooped on seven addresses in London, West Midland and Herefordshire arresting 12 people. The women were believed to be mostly from Malaysia.

Thirteen women were rescued from a suspected brothel in Paddington and another six from in Birmingham. They were taken to support centres and have been given access to a range of services.

Police said some would eventually return home with the help of charities in Malaysia. The suspected ringleader and his partner, believed to be of Vietnamese origin, were arrested at a hotel in Golders Green, North London.

Detectives believe the organisers were making tens of thousands of pounds from the racket.

The raids were carried out under Operation Pentameter, a national campaign launched in February to help women trafficked into the country and forced into prostitution against their will.

This morning’s raids followed a five-month intelligence operation into the network’s activities.

Chief Superintendent Ian Dyson, the head of the unit, called for anyone who knew of women in a similar position to come forward.

"To people who organise women in this fashion and traffic women into the country: we will find you and we will arrest you for it," he said.

"To men who use brothels, my message is ’stop it’. You are fuelling this trade."

Since the start of Operation Pentameter, 44 women and two girls had been rescued by police. The majority were from eastern Europe and the Balkans as well as Thailand, China and Brazil.

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