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An exterior view of the new Europol headquarters, the alliance of the European Union police and a multinational research organization, in The Hague, The Netherlands 01 July 2011. Photo by EPA/BGNES
Europol has arrested over 103 people in 10 countries during simultaneous operations against a major migrant smuggling network.
The EU police agency, as cited by the BBC News, said that it had conducted one of the largest ever co-ordinated actions against people-traffickers in the history of the EU, following an investigation of a year and a half.
Early on Tuesday, more than 1200 police officers raided 117 sites simultaneously, arresting 103 suspects and seizing a total of EUR 176 500, a weapon and ammunition, mobile phones, laptops, and bank statements.
The operations were conducted in France, Germany, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Turkey, Greece, and Kosovo.
The smuggling network specialized in bringing in migrants from Libya, Iraq, and Syria, mainly through Turkey and the western Balkans, according to reports of Deutsche Welle.
According to the EU police agency, the migrants were often smuggled in inhuman and dangerous conditions and sometimes died en route.
Europol said that it was yet to track down about 20 members of the trafficking ring who were still unknown.
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