382 arrests of human traffickers using Balkan Route

The European Border and Coast Guard Agency, Frontex, as well as Europol, and Spain have carried out a cross-border operation to combat drug and firearms trafficking, migrant smuggling, and human trafficking at the end of last month, which has resulted in the arrest of 382 people.

In this regard, Europol has revealed that most of the 382 arrested people are suspected of being involved in drug trafficking, facilitating illegal immigration, document fraud, and firearms trafficking, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.

Almost 16,000 officers were involved in this operation, known as Joint Action Day (JAD) in Southeast Europe, which took place between October 26 and 29, mainly in the Balkans and Southeast Europe.

In addition, the arrests and recovered evidence have allowed law enforcement authorities to open 130 new investigations.

Out of the 382 arrests, 159 were apprehended related to immigrant smuggling, 112 related to drug trafficking, 38 related to firearms trafficking, two related to human trafficking, and 71 related to other crimes.

At the same time, through this operation, 74,924 people, 998 places, and 32,665 vehicles were checked. On the day of the action, 2,476 illegal entries were also discovered.

“The Balkan route is notorious for its use in a number of crime areas, including migrant smuggling and the trafficking of firearms and drugs into the EU. Multinational criminal groups source the weapons predominantly from countries in the Western Balkans, where human resources with expertise in firearms are widely available,” the statement issued by Europol reads.

According to Europol, firearms are mainly trafficked in these EU countries such as Belgium, France, Germany, Spain, and the Netherlands.

The Balkan route is also considered a key entry point for heroin traffickers, while cannabis and cocaine traffickers also use this crossing point.

The largest land entry point in the EU is Bulgaria’s Kapitan Andreevo checkpoint on the border with Turkey, which sees around 1,500 trucks of various goods enter the EU every day.

Thus, Europol points out that its EU SOCTA 2021 shows that 80 per cent of the criminal networks active in the EU use legal structures to facilitate their criminal activities.

Previously, Europol together with law enforcement authorities from Estonia, Germany, Lithuania, Poland, and the United Kingdom have dismantled an organized crime network smuggling migrants from Belarus into the European Union.

In this regard, Europol confirmed that 11 people were arrested through the operation, ten of them in Poland and one in the UK based on a German warrant.

The same authority said that 28 locations were checked, including two in Germany, four in Lithuania, and 22 in Poland. As Europol explains, during this action 11 transfers with 11 facilitators and 60 migrants were discovered.

SOURCE: Schengen Visa Info

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