Judicial and law enforcement authorities in Austria, Belgium, Germany, France, Italy and the United States have dismantled a criminal network involved in migrant smuggling, document fraud and money laundering.
Europol said in a statement that it had worked closely with Eurojust and authorities in the six countries to close down the criminal network last week after months of intense investigation.
“The migrants, mainly Iraqis and Iranians of Kurdish origin, boarded private aircraft in Turkey carrying false diplomatic passports. However, the official destinations of the trips, usually the Caribbean, were never reached. During the stopovers at different European airports, including in Austria, France and Germany, the migrants left the plane, disposed of their false passports and systematically applied for asylum,” Europol said.
The suspects charged up to €20 000 per person smuggled.
“It is believed that, between October and December 2020, at least five smuggling operations took place in five different European countries. In addition, several plans were made to carry out other smuggling operations,” Europol said.
In addition to migrant smuggling and forging identity documents, the organised crime group is also suspected of issuing false cheques and scamming airlines in an attempt to build its own fleet. The suspects also allegedly defrauded hotels by not paying the invoices.
Eurpol said the team had arrested five suspects, two in Belgium and three in Italy, and conducted seven house searches on September 13. Police seized two aircraft, €80 000, one high-end car, electronic equipment, and equipment used to forge identity documents, such as card printers, stamps, holograms and white plastic cards. A total of €173 000 was also frozen in Italy.
“Eurojust supported the authorities involved with the setting up and funding of a joint investigation team in June 2021. Eurojust also hosted four co-ordination meetings to facilitate judicial co-operation and provide support for the co-ordinated investigative efforts,” Europol said.
Europol said it had prioritised the case at an early stage and had assigned a dedicated analyst and specialist to support the national investigations to identify the members of the criminal network and to dismantle it.
“Europol facilitated the operational information exchange and provided analytical and financial support. On the action day, Europol activated a virtual command post to facilitate the information exchange in real-time. Europol also deployed three analysts – one to Belgium and two to Italy – to cross-check operational information against Europol’s databases, thus providing further investigative leads to the participating national law enforcement authorities,” Europol said.
