Eight people were arrested in the largest crackdown on human trafficking to exploit labour that the UK has ever seen.
More than 200 staff from nine different organisations took part in the crackdown on the organised crime group believed to be trafficking people into the UK for cheap labour.
Teams swooped on a field near Holbeach, South Lincolnshire, where workers were employed picking leeks, as well as addresses across Northamptonshire and the Midlands where they were being housed.
More than 60 men and women, aged 15 to 67, from Eastern European countries including Poland and Lithuania, are now recovering in a reception centre in Northamptonshire. They are being debriefed and giving witness statements before they are hopefully found legitimate work and places to stay.
It is thought they were recruited through advertisements and agencies in Eastern Europe to travel to the UK on the promise of work.
Most travelled here legally but it is alleged they were then trapped by organisers who placed them in squalid accommodation, forced them to work long hours and held them in "debt bondage".
Three men were arrested at the field on suspicion of human trafficking for the purposes of labour exploitation. A further four men and one woman were also arrested on suspicion of people trafficking and money laundering, following searches of 21 properties.
These houses were in Kettering, Peterborough and Coventry and a business premises in Market Harborough, Leics, was also raided. The eight people arrested are believed to be from the Kettering area.
The huge crackdown involved the East Midlands Foreign National Crime Team, Northamptonshire Police, the UK Human Trafficking Centre, the UK Border Agency, Serious Organised Crime Agency and the Gangmasters Licensing Authority.
Codenamed Operation Ruby, it is the culmination of six months of planning and preparation. Det Supt Glyn Timmins, director of Investigations at Northamptonshire Police, who co-ordinated the operation, said it had been a huge success. He said it was not yet known where the food in the field was being sent, but said it is thought some was being sold to major supermarket chains.
