Bulgarian Authorities Detain Members of a Migrant Trafficking Ring

Eight members of an organised crime ring for migrant trafficking were detained on 14^th of November during a specialised operation carried out jointly by employees of the Ministry of interior’s Directorate for Combatting Organised Crime, Border Police and the State Agency for National Security (SANS). The detained were involved in alleged illegal trafficking of migrants through the territory of Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary to Austria. Two of them are citizens of Pakistan.

The evidence gathered so far shows that, unlike most other migrant trafficking “structures”, this group organised the transfer of migrants not only through the territory of Bulgaria but also to the final point of the journey. This necessitated well-arranged actions and specialisation of each of the participants, as well as hiring third parties.

According to the investigation, the two foreigners in the group recruited “staff”, mostly from Turkey and mostly Pakistanis, Afghans and Iraqis. Members of the crime ring welcomed them at "green border", then transported and accommodated them in the capital Sofia and in the cities of Vidin and Lom situated on the river Danube in the northern part of Bulgaria, border with Romania. Subsequently, the migrants were transported on boats on the Danube River. The boats were hired from local fishermen. Then participants in the crime ring who would arrive in Romania earlier, would meet the migrants on Romanian territory and transport them in their cars to the border with Hungary. After another illegal crossing through the "green border", they were transported under the same scheme to Budapest. From there, in cars with foreign number plates, they would then be “delivered ”to Austrian territory.

In order to get to the final “destination”, migrants paid between 4,000 and 6,000 euros per person. The smuggling into Romania cost 600 to 1,000 euros. The payment was made mainly on the Hawala payment system, after each migrant arrived at the pre-arranged location. Documents have been seized, according to which payments have been made through international money transfer companies. After receiving the money, it was distributed among the participants in the crime group, and the agreed "fees" for the hire boat owners, drivers and landlords were also paid. The drivers who transported the migrants along the route to Austria received 100 euros per migrant. Between 50 and 100 BGN per person were given to the boatmen for sailing on the Danube.

By orders of a prosecutor from the Specialized Prosecutor's Office, six of the suspects including the two Pakistani citizens, were detained for 72 hours. On 16 November, the Specialised Criminal Court will be requested to impose "Detention on Remand" for each of them.

One of the participants is in a European country and is to be charged after the detention. The 8th participant was released on BGN 5,000 bail because of a serious health condition.

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