‘Highly Dangerous’ Smugglers Behind 10k Illegal Arrivals Arrested by European Taskforce

A German-led European police taskforce claims to have arrested eight “highly dangerous” people smugglers and 127 others who operated a major migrant smuggling network that allegedly helped 10,000 enter Europe illegally.

The European Union police agency Europol announced the results of the operation stating in a press release that eight “high-value targets” were arrested and three others placed under European arrest warrants in Austria, Germany, Hungary and Romania.

Europol notes that 127 others were arrested as “facilitators” of the network in Austria, Germany, Hungary, Romania, the Netherlands and Serbia. A total of 151 home searches were carried out and assets worth approximately €900,000 (£768,303/$962,703) were seized by authorities.

“These Europol High-Value Targets, mainly Syrian nationals, had global connections in source, transit and destination countries. Europol checked its databases and discovered that these suspects are already linked to 150 investigations,” Europol stated.

“The investigative leads revealed that the targets facilitated the smuggling of at least 10,000 migrants, who are mainly of Afghan, Pakistani and Syrian origin, to the EU,” the agency added.

According to Europol, the network operated by using lorries, vans and cars to smuggle migrants from Turkey, through the Balkan route to Austria, Germany and the Netherlands.

The network is also said to have used social media to advertise its smuggling services and the facilitators arrested are alleged to have been used to build trust among migrants. While the facilitators created videos to advertise the smuggling business supposedly demonstrating the safety of the service, some videos allegedly showed smugglers carrying firearms along the Hungarian border.

Illegal migrant activity on the Balkan route has surged in recent months according to the European Union border agency Frontex, which claimed that the number of attempts to cross into the EU in the first quarter of 2022 had doubled compared to the prior year.

Frontex also stated that the number of migrants entering the EU on all migrant routes was increasing and that arrivals were approaching levels not seen since the end of the migrant crisis in 2016.

Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com.