ROME -- Three women and eight men have been arrested in connection with a Romanian prostitution ring operating in Tivoli, just outside the capital.

 According to investigators in a task force deployed by Tivoli’s police force, the young Romanian victims were trafficked to Italy, deprived of their passports and documents and forced into prostitution while being subjected to psychological and physical abuse.

 Rome daily Il Messaggero reports that all of the women came from families living in extreme poverty in Romania and were persuaded to move to Italy with the promise of stable employment.

 The women were then allegedly “auctioned off” or given out as “gambling prizes” and - in one case - “branded” with the intitials of her “owner.”