An organized criminal network involved in migrant smuggling was neutralized in an operation led by the Romanian Police (Poliția Română) and Border Police (Poliția de Frontieră ) and with the participation of the GDBOP at the Ministry of the Interior of Bulgaria, the Ministry of the Interior announced.
8 people were arrested - Romanian and Syrian citizens. The suspects smuggled migrants from Bulgaria to Romania and then to Western Europe – shows the investigation, also supported by Austria, Germany and Hungary. Cross-border cooperation and coordination between countries was carried out with the assistance of Europol.
In the course of the police actions, searches were carried out at 9 addresses on Romanian territory, and 32 migrants were found at one of them (9 Iraqi and 21 Syrian citizens, as well as two with an unknown nationality at the moment). Documents, electronic equipment and sums of money were seized.
According to initial data, the traffic fee from Turkey to Western Europe varied between 5,000 and 10,000 euros. The criminal network operated from Bucharest and used Timisoara as a center to house and facilitate the transport of migrants to Western Europe. The suspects recruited migrants from the Middle East, mainly Syria, who wanted to reach Western European countries, mainly Germany.
The leader of the criminal network – a Syrian resident in Romania for three years, who maintained connections with other key organizers based in Istanbul.
He acted as the regional coordinator of criminal activity along this section of the route. He allegedly hired Romanian nationals, usually private taxi drivers, to transport the migrants. Between February and May alone, the Romanian authorities uncovered five cases of smuggling of a total of 70 illegal migrants.
They were transported in trucks hidden among goods. Each migrant paid between 5,000 and 10,000 euros for the full transfer to the final destination.