Europol unit to be installed in Evros to tackle migrant smugglers

Europol officers with expertise in curbing organized crime will be dispatched to Evros, in northern Greece, to help the Greek Police (ELAS) crack down on increasingly active international migrant smuggling rackets.

The decision to dispatch a mobile unit to the region in due course was reached following a visit to Alexandroupoli and Orestiada on April 30 by Europol chief Catherine de Bolle, and Robert Crepinko, the agency's migrant smuggling expert.

The unit will be made up of specially trained Europol officers with equipment giving them direct access to the agency's databases. It is hoped that this information, and their expertise, will help local law enforcement catch traffickers who have stepped up their activity over the Greek-Turkish land border in recent months.

"With the mobile unit, inspections can be done in real time, using Europol's databases," a...