A South American man banked more than £150,000 after trafficking women between flats in Scotland for prostitution.
Jose Barbosa, 44, used an alias, a Spanish ID card and a fake employers' letter to rent out properties short term which he would sub-let to women.
In August 2013 police had intelligence that Barbosa, using the alias of Alexander Marques, was involved in organised prostitution in Scotland.
At The High Court in Edinburgh Advocate depute Mark McGuire said: "The intelligence was to the effect that the accused was involved in the transportation of females between properties he had rented for the purposes of prostitution and would advertise the sexual services they provided in adult websites."
The prosecutor said there was no evidence that the women had been coerced into prostitution and the trafficking was restricted to taking them between addresses.
Police had a surveillance operation, dubbed Operation Wolfberry, to monitor Barbosa and officers noted "a steady stream of male callers" at flats.
Undercover officers were also deployed to make contact with women advertising as "Amazing Gabriella" and "Hot Sara".
Barbosa, a Brazilian, who lived in Mill Street, Kirkcaldy, in Fife, had been given permission by the Irish authorities to study in their country up until next year.
Mr McGuire said the surveillance operation showed Barbosa regularly travelled to flats in Pratt Street, Kirkcaldy, Rumblingwell, Dunfermline, in Fife, Avon Street, Hamilton, in Lanarkshire, Barnton Street, Stirling, Oswald Street, Falkirk, in Stirlingshire, Atholl Street, Perth, Southcroft, Alva, in Clackmannanshire and Malcom Street, Dundee, sometimes in the company of females.
"Often he would go to various banks and deposit large quantities of money in notes immediately after leaving the various flats," said the prosecutor.
"He would frequently visit several of the flats in one day," he added. On one occasion Barbosa was seen to buy a bed base which was taken to the flat in Kirkcaldy.
Undercover officers were given a price for sex. Earlier this year Barbosa was seen to collect one woman, Adriano Fidalgo, from a park and ride complex at Dunfermline before driving her to the flat in Perth.
Days later an undercover officer met her using her working title of "Amazing Julia" at a flat in Kirkcaldy. Mr McGuire said: "Sexual services were on offer and a price quoted."
A search of Barbosa's home address found tenancy agreements linking him to the rented flats and documentation connecting him to advert placement on adult websites. Raids also found sex workers at all the flats, except that in Alva.
Mr McGuire said: "The sex workers confirmed that they had not been coerced into prostitution by the accused but that he had arranged accommodation for them and that they paid him a weekly rent for use of the flats.
"The accused would also arrange advertisements on adult websites and transport than between properties for a fee."
Police inquiries revealed that Barbosa appeared to have no legitimate source of income. He did not get a salary or state benefits but large cash deposits were made into various bank accounts.
Mr McGuire said that £150,852 had gone through bank accounts which had no legitimate source and represented the proceeds of "the trafficking operation".
Barbosa had earlier admitted arranging and facilitating the movement of women for prostitution between August 2013 and May this year and transferring criminal property but his case was sent by a sheriff to the High Court which has greater powers of sentencing.
Mr McGuire said Barbosa faced court action to strip him of crime profits.
The judge, Lord Matthews, deferred sentence on Barbosa, who is in custody until later this month at the High Court in Glasgow.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here