Five arrest warrants were executed against suspected smugglers – against two women and a man in Stade and a woman and a man each in Gladbeck, a federal police spokesman told the German Press Agency. “All five are also Syrians,” he added.
The five arrested are themselves asylum seekers and are all family members. Overall, the alleged gang is accused of bringing in more than 100 Syrians over time.
Refugees paid up to 7,000 euros
According to the investigation, the suspected illegal immigrants each paid 3,000 to 7,000 euros for their illegal entry into Germany, the spokesman said. In addition to gang and commercial smuggling of foreigners, the suspects are also accused of money laundering: They used their illegal income to buy gold jewelry, for example. “Then they are no longer sitting on the money,” said spokesman Jörg Martienßen.
As the Federal Police Directorate at Frankfurt am Main Airport announced, around 350 officers were deployed in apartments and houses in seven municipalities on behalf of the Stade public prosecutor’s office: in Stade, Balge (both in Lower Saxony), Gladbeck (North Rhine-Westphalia), Fulda, Kassel (both in Hesse). ), Bremen and Kelheim (Bavaria).
According to Martienßen, there are six other Syrian suspects for whom there are no arrest warrants. At first there was only talk of five other suspects – also family members of the five suspected smugglers who were arrested. The gang’s age range is from 23 to 50 years old. According to Martienßen, after the investigations that began in August 2022, Syrians were first flown to Greece, given real passports from compatriots and then brought to Germany via intermediate stops, including by plane. The alleged gang later switched to the so-called Balkan route, through which the illegal immigrants reached Germany on foot, by car and truck.
“An important step”
German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) called the raid an important step. “It is another success in the fight against this terrible crime of people smuggling,” she said during a visit to Frankfurt. “People without water are crammed into very small spaces for hours and then brought here into the country.” She pointed out that the legal framework would also be changed. In the future, smuggling activities will always be punishable even if those who entered the country illegally are not yet of criminal responsibility. In addition, smugglers’ residence permits could be revoked.
According to Martienßen, during the raid that began simultaneously at all locations at 6 a.m. on Tuesday, the federal police seized, among other things, cell phones and laptops as well as a suspected smuggler’s car in Gladbeck. The electronic devices would be carefully evaluated by specialists for further investigations. The officials also confiscated gold worth around 220,000 euros and 16,000 euros in cash.
According to Martienßen, the investigations with searches in a total of twelve properties show “in this case too how criminal networks take advantage of the personal living conditions and a high motivation to escape of those being trafficked to maximize their own profits.” From the perpetrators’ point of view, the refugees are “a commodity from whose transport maximum profit is to be achieved.” The alleged gang worked with other smugglers at “intermediate stations” on the so-called Balkan route.
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