The operation to uncover this network is considered "perhaps the largest in the last 20 years". "Russian mafiosi", as the newspaper Parisien calls the pimps, recruited girls from Ukraine, Russia, and Lithuania.
According to the newspaper, their services were used by a "very high-ranking clientele, in particular French businessmen", capable of paying from 200 to 800 euros. Meetings were arranged in apartments rented in prestigious neighborhoods of the 15th and 17th arrondissements of Paris. The girls were in France on three-month visas, and therefore changed frequently. The "masters" had to carefully maintain internal discipline in order, on the one hand, to prevent information leaks, and on the other, to fully satisfy the demands of picky clients. The "internal rules" discovered by the police were written in Russian and instructed prostitutes to "have a phone with them, dress according to the client's profile, immediately demand payment, check the money for counterfeit bills".
Russian law enforcement agencies provided assistance to the French in uncovering the network. The detainees, according to Parisien, "were involved in money laundering in Russia". Under French law, prostitution is not prosecuted, while procuring is a criminal offense.