Europol: 8 Arrested for Smuggling Migrants Across the Turkish-Bulgarian Border

Bulgarian authorities detected over 700 migrants smuggled by this criminal network

On 19 September, Bulgarian authorities, supported by Europol, dismantled a criminal network smuggling migrants from Türkiye via Bulgaria and Serbia towards Western Southern Europe. The investigation, involving Greek and Romanian authorities, was conducted in the framework of a regional Operational Task Force set up to investigate migrant smuggling networks using Bulgaria as a transit country.

The action day led to:

• 8 arrests (one High Value Target)
• 11 location searches
• Seizures including: cash, Hawala accountancy notebooks and documents
• One Romanian citizen found during the searches has been identified as a person wanted by Austria.

The investigation was initiated at the beginning of 2023 when Bulgarian authorities found migrants smuggled by this network. So far, national authorities have detected 15 smuggling incidents. The smuggling network allegedly facilitated the illegal secondary movements of over 700 irregular migrants towards other parts of the EU. The suspected ringleaders, predominantly Syrian nationals, coordinated the smuggling activities while maintaining contacts with smugglers and hawaladars in Turkey and Greece, as well as in other countries along the smuggling route. The suspects facilitated the transportation of migrants from the Turkish-Bulgarian border to accommodations in the region of Sofia. After a short stay there, they were further transported to the Bulgarian-Serbian border.

Migrants had to deposit EUR 3 000 to EUR 5 000 in Hawala offices before going to the border

Migrants had to pay significant deposits before being taken...