(ANSA) - BELGRADE, 20 NOV - Law enforcement authorities in the United Kingdom and in Romania, supported by Europol and Eurojust, have dismantled an organised crime group involved in human trafficking for sexual exploitation, Europol said in a statement today. The criminal group, active since 2017, recruited the victims in economically vulnerable regions in Romania, promising significant material gains. The suspected criminals were often in a fictitious relationship with the sexually exploited victims, using the 'loverboy' method, "a way to ensure the emotional dependence of the young women on the members of the criminal group," Eurostat said. The operation led to the arrests of nine suspected members of the organized crime group in the United Kingdom, of three individuals in Romania and to the identification of eight potential victims of human trafficking, aged between 18 and 30 years old. (ANSA).