IWPR reported that several senior Montenegro officials are implicated in an expanding sex trade scandal. The Balkan sex trade and sex slavery issues is one lurid example of the areas endemic criminal activity. Now it has become a political problem. IWPR said evidence connects leading judicial figures in Montenegro to trafficking in prostitutes. Montenegro serves as a conduit for moving sex slaves into Western Europe, much as the area has served as a conduit for drugs moving from the Middle East to Europe. The women, however, tend to come from Eastern Europe, particularly Russia, Ukraine, and Moldova.