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RR RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDBU RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA
RUEHLN RUEHLZ RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHTL #0444/01 1901358
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 091358Z JUL 07
FM AMEMBASSY TALLINN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 9976
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 TALLINN 000444 
 
SIPDIS 
 
FOR EUR/NB (MICHAEL POLLACK) AND G/TIP (MEGAN HALL) 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM EN
SUBJECT: UPDATE ON ESTONIAN LAW ENFORCEMENT TIP EFFORTS 
 
REF: TALLINN 132 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary.  Estonian law enforcement continues to 
make significant progress in clamping down on 
prostitution rings operating in Estonia.  With new legal 
tools for investigation and prosecution implemented in 
Estonia's criminal code to fight trafficking-in-persons 
(TIP), the police have been successful in infiltrating 
and breaking up a number of brothels over the last three 
years.  Due to rapid economic growth, rising salaries 
and a labor shortage, the number of individuals working 
in commercial sex has also declined.  Also, as a result 
of a USG-sponsored roundtable on TIP, police have begun 
to reach out to Estonian TIP-NGOs to improve information 
sharing.  While the expanded anti-TIP legislation has 
been important, Police contacts also concede that TIP- 
specific legislation might make it easier for them to 
investigate and prosecute TIP cases.  End Summary. 
 
Police Making Progress in Tackling Commercial Sex 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
¶2. (U) In November 2003, the Ministry of Internal 
Affairs (MOIA) established a special unit within the 
Estonian police to tackle illegal activities of 
commercial sex in Estonia.  As prostitution is legal in 
Estonia and pimping is not, this unit's responsibility 
was to focus on the criminality and organized crime 
behind commercial sex, without punishing the prostitutes 
involved.  Since its inception, the unit has proven to 
be highly effective.  In 2004, there were an estimated 
43 brothels and 70-80 apartments where prostitutes 
operated.  According to Estonian law enforcement 
statistics and ATOLL, an Estonian NGO working with 
prostitutes, there are now only four brothels and 
roughly 30-40 apartments where prostitution takes place. 
 
¶3. (U) Ardo Ranne, North Police Prefecture 
Superintendent, told us that prior to 2003, the police 
lacked the legal tools necessary to do anything more 
than monitor the brothels.  However, according to Ranne, 
recent additional legal statutes (recommended by the 
National Action Plan (NAP)) have given police more 
investigative tools (e.g., wire taps, access to bank 
records, phone records, tracking internet protocol (IP) 
addresses, hidden surveillance, etc.).  As most 
commercial sex is advertised on the internet in Estonia, 
the power to trace IP addresses has been invaluable for 
the police as pimps now change apartment brothel 
locations every couple of months.  The police were also 
given the power to investigate and arrest not only the 
brothel owners, operators, and pimps, but also secondary 
figures involved in the activity (e.g, bouncers at the 
brothel, taxi drivers who knowingly deliver clients, 
etc.) through Estonia's 15 TIP-related legal statutes 
(reftel).  At the moment, the police have 25 open cases 
of trafficking-related offenses, 13 of which are under 
active investigation.  Four of these were opened in the 
last three months.  In the last year, the police also 
conducted 10 raids to shut down apartment brothels (one 
of which was right next to the Embassy).  Ranne said 
that these extra powers have enabled the police to 
connect disparate cases and investigations.  He cited 
one example in 2006 of police merging six cases, 
involving 20 prostitutes, when bank transfers and wire 
taps revealed that they were all orchestrated by a 
single individual. 
 
Prostitution Declining in Estonia 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶4. (U) According to ATOLL, the police, and interlocutors 
from the Ministry of Social Affairs (MOSA), the number 
of women involved in prostitution in Estonia has 
declined over the last few years.  The police estimate 
that there are no more than 1000 prostitutes operating 
in the country.  Citing one example, Ranne said that the 
number of prostitutes working on street corners in all 
of Estonia has dwindled to less than ten women. 
Estonian NGOs and GOE agencies agree that the booming 
economy is the main reason for this decline.  Roman 
Krolov, from ATOLL, explained that due to Estonia's 
labor shortage wages have risen dramatically so that 
even unskilled workers with limited Estonian-language 
skills can find work at decent wages.  According to 
Ranne, the police know of only ten foreign prostitutes 
(two from Russia, two from Lithuania, and six from 
Latvia), none of whom they believe are TIP victims. 
According to ATOLL, compared to what commercial sex 
workers make in the more affluent Nordic countries, 
 
TALLINN 00000444  002 OF 002 
 
 
Estonia is still a less attractive destination for 
prostitutes and foreign gangs as a country of 
destination. 
 
Persistent Challenges for the Police 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶5. (SBU) Due to Estonia's small size (population of 1.3 
million) and the fact that over half of the country's 
prostitutes operate in Tallinn, Ranne said the primary 
difficulty police face is not finding prostitution, but 
linking the money to pimps and organized gangs.  Pimps 
and gangs have become more careful to conceal their 
involvement.  Ranne said this has required more 
surveillance and undercover intelligence for his unit. 
One successful method employed by the police is using 
undercover officers to pose as prostitutes.  This work 
is dangerous and personnel intensive ' because it also 
requires officers to pose as clients.  Ranne said that 
police resources are starting to be strained in the 
unit's work to infiltrate prostitution rings.  He 
admitted that TIP-specific legislation could be helpful 
in reducing the time it takes to build a case.  Ranne 
has had informal discussions with his Ministry of 
Justice (MOJ) counterparts.  However, according to our 
MOJ interlocutors, there are no plans to submit any TIP- 
specific legislation to the GOE. 
 
¶6. (SBU) Cooperation between Estonian law enforcement 
and TIP NGOs continues to be a challenge.  At a State- 
Department funded TIP training conference on May 23-24 
for GOE agencies involved in TIP and TIP-related crimes, 
a dispute broke out between an ATOLL representative and 
police offers participating in the training conference 
regarding the lack of information sharing between the 
two.  Police officials were frustrated that ATOLL and 
other TIP NGOs were not sharing information with police 
because of concerns about confidentiality.  Since the 
conference, ATOLL, other Estonian NGOs and police 
officials have held meetings to discuss how to better 
cooperate.  While they have not resolved the 
confidentiality issue, Ranne said these initial meetings 
 
SIPDIS 
have helped break down suspicions and distrust on both 
sides.  Ranne explained that the difficulty in 
connecting the gangs and pimps to seemingly independent 
apartment brothels has led the police to recognize that 
'even the most trivial information from NGOs might help 
fill in missing gaps to close a case or expose an 
unknown wider prostitution network.' 
 
¶7. (SBU) Comment.  Estonian law enforcement is working 
hard to close the remaining brothels and organized gangs 
behind them.  More importantly, the police are beginning 
to recognize the utility in reaching out to NGOs and 
having TIP-specific legislation.  Post will continue to 
monitor and encourage progress on both fronts. 
 
PHILLIPS