Qin Huang, 31, Guolei Huang, 35, and Xiao Min, 38, were sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow after pleading guilty to charges under the Human Trafficking and Exploitation Act between 2018 and 2021.

Guolei Huang pled guilty to a charge of keeping, managing or assisting in the management of a brothel. Each offence was aggravated by the connection of each accused to serious crime.

Qin Huang was imprisoned for eight years, Guolei Huang was jailed for four years and three months and Min will spend eight years and nine months behind bars.

Moira Orr, who leads on homicide and major crime for the Crown Office, said: “These three individuals ruthlessly exploited vulnerable women for their own financial benefit without any regard to the suffering they caused.

“Women were trafficked into Scotland to be used as prostitutes and moved around residential properties across Glasgow, Edinburgh and elsewhere in the United Kingdom.

“This was a sophisticated and significant criminal network who arranged, recruited, and facilitated prostitution and which also involved the transporting and harbouring of women to work as prostitutes.”