German police launch crackdown on migrant trafficking rings

German Federal Police have carried out nationwide raids against international human trafficking rings, and five men were arrested during the Wednesday raid, the German Press Agency reported citing a Federal Police announcement.

In one case, three men, two in Berlin and one in Saxony, who had allegedly brought refugees to Germany by truck across the Balkan route, were caught. In another case, two men who had trafficked mainly Syrian refugees from Greece by air to Germany were detained.

During the operation, seven apartments and business premises have been searched in Berlin, Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia and Bremen. In total, around 200 police officers, including special forces of the Federal Police, were deployed.

The ring in the first case was suspected of having recently smuggled some 160 illegal migrants into Germany over the Balkan route in the back of a truck. According to the investigation, the smugglers brought the migrants via the Balkan route and then via Poland and the Czech Republic to Germany. According to the Federal Police, 8,000 euros were usually extorted from each illegal migrant.

The raids in the second case were directed against a group of smugglers who had allegedly brought mainly Syrians with false passports from the airports in Greece to Germany between 2015 and 2017.