International crime ring specialised in migrant trafficking, dismantled by border police officers

Five citizens from Romania, Sweden and Syria, specialised in migrant trafficking were detained for 24 hours by the border police officers, being accused of luring young, African-Asian people in order to smuggle them across border from Serbia to Romania, General Inspectorate of Border Police (IGPF) informs in a press release sent to AGERPRES on Wednesday. 

According to the release, during the investigations having been carried out, it was established that the crime ring operated in an organised way, being made up of several Romanian, Swedish and Syrian citizens who, by using cross-border networks, were involved in trafficking migrants and to that end, they lured young, African-Asian people to smuggle them into Romania at the Serbian border, and then head to countries in the Schengen area. 

The statements of the people involved showed that the traffickers requested from each migrant amounts ranging between 100 and 200 euro in order to help them fraudulently cross the border, the communication between traffickers and migrants being conducted through messages on online communication platforms. 

"During 12.12.2017, following a police action organised in view of combating illegal migration and cross-border crimes in Timisoara municipality area, three Romanian citizens, aged between 21 and 24, one 40-year-old Swedish citizen and one 24-year-old Syrian citizen were taken into custody.