German anti-terror police in northern Hesse have carried out a series of arrests against a gang accused of smuggling Syrians and also helping radical Islamic State terrorists enter Europe.
The elite anti-terrorist unit GSG 9 executed six arrest warrants on Tuesday, noting that three of the suspects were armed at the time of their arrest and all six are believed to be part of a people-smuggling gang that has helped at least 147 migrants enter Germany illegally — although investigators say the actual number of migrants may be far higher, with some possibly linked to the Islamic State terror organisation.
A total of 20 residential and business addresses were searched in Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia, and Bavaria on orders of the Kassel public prosecutor’s office, with police stating that small amounts of illegal drugs and weapons were found, including a butterfly knife and a machete, Focus magazine reports.
Reports also claim that the former girlfriend of the main suspect in the case says her former 28-year-old Syrian boyfriend had connections to the Islamic State, and that the smuggler group helped Islamic State fighters enter Europe illegally. Police investigators have been unable to find these members since they began working on the case last Novemebr.
The main suspect is also accused of singing known Islamic State songs in his car earlier this year.
The smuggling gang is believed to have amassed around 200,000 euros in cash and members are also accused of smuggling drugs. The Syrians smuggled by the gang were brought from Belarus, Poland, and Austria to Germany at rates ranging from 600 to 2,000 euros per person. Some were later smuggled out of Germany and on to the Netherlands, France, and Belgium.
The idea of Islamic State militants using illegal migrant routes to illegally enter Europe is not new and has been a concern for several years, with Italian police arresting a suspected Islamic state fighter at a migrant reception facility in Venice last December.
Just months before in October of last year, the Spanish police arrested an Algerian migrant who came to the country illegally and is believed to have been the leader of a terrorist cell linked to the Islamic State.
Paris terrorist Salah Abdeslam is reported to have helped at least ten Islamic State fighters enter Belgium as “refugees”, six of whom went on to participate in terrorist attacks on the French capital and four of whom carried out attacks in Brussels, killing some 215 people between them.