“Border Police” broke up an organized crime group for the transport of illegal migrants through Bulgaria. This was announced by the Ministry of the Interior.
Procedural-investigative actions were carried out at eight addresses and 11 people were arrested, followed by two leaders of the criminal group.
The group carried out illegal activity related to the recruitment, concealment, transfer and transportation of groups of illegal migrants from Turkey through Bulgaria in the direction of Serbia and Western European countries.
Physical evidence was seized – a pistol with an empty magazine, mobile phones, notebooks, tablets, a laptop, SIM cards, a white substance resembling amphetamine, etc.
The border police started working to intercept the criminal activity a few months ago. In the course of their investigation, numerous operative-search actions were carried out. The members of the organized crime group have been identified.
The detainees ran an office for quick loans in the residential area. “Mladost 1A” in Sofia. They recruited drivers by offering jobs to people in financial difficulty. They were supposed to escort the cars carrying migrants.
The hired drivers kept in touch with the other drivers through mobile applications and promptly alerted them to the presence of police patrols along the route. If any of the targeted clients refused to participate in migrant trafficking, they were subjected to threats and beatings.
In some of the cases, the migrants were transported from the Turkish-Bulgarian to the Bulgarian-Serbian border directly, and in others – this happened in stages. The organizers of the criminal group took between 3,500 and 4,500 euros per migrant.
The information was reported to the Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office. A pre-trial proceeding has been initiated on the inventory of RDGP-Airports.
Tags: Border Police broke criminal group transporting migrants Bulgaria
