On June 7, officers of the Romanian Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT), in cooperation with German and Serbian police, raided 11 locations and dismantled an international people smuggling ring moving illegal migrants from the Middle East to Germany.
DIICOT said in a press release that “between 2022 and 2023, several persons of Romanian and Turkish nationality, coordinated from outside the country by Turkish and Syrian nationals, set up a cross-border organized criminal group with the aim of committing the crime of smuggling migrants (of Turkish and Iraqi origin) on the route Turkey — Bulgaria/Serbia — Romania — Germany.”
According to DIICOT, the leaders of the group coordinated operations from their residences in Turkey, Germany and Serbia.
During the documentation of the case, more than 300 trafficked migrants were identified on Romanian territory.
For each transport, the victims were charged between €4,000 and €10,000, depending on the trafficking segment. For example, it cost between €4,000 and €5,000 to move from Romania to Germany.
For the transfer and illegal transport of migrants, the drivers involved were trained and coordinated at all times by the organizers of the transports who sent embarkation and disembarkation locations, as well as real-time communication of the risks due to the presence of police teams on the route. They also handled the management of the necessary transport resources, such as expenses for fuel and the purchase of visas or food for migrants.
On the Romanian side of the police operation, nine suspects have been detained for questioning, two others by the German police, while police in Serbia raided two safe houses of the criminal group.
