site.btaPolice Break Crime Ring Trafficking Migrants across Danube Bridge

Police Break Crime Ring Trafficking Migrants across Danube Bridge

Rousse, on the Danube, April 25 (BTA) - A crime ring which took migrants through the Danube Bridge crossing on the Bulgarian-Romanian border was disrupted after a successful operation Monday conducted by Bulgarian police and Romanian anticorruption officers under the leadership of the Rousse District Prosecution Office, the institution said on Tuesday.

The crime ring involved a Rousse policeman who is yet to be identified, District Prosecutor Georgi Georgiev told BTA. The illegal organization had been surveyed for several months.

The mastermind and the other members of the criminal operation were arrested in Romania along with five migrants hidden in a van. Each of the migrants had been nailed up in a wooden box and the timely intervention of the police saved them from suffocation.

Pretrial proceedings were instituted in Bulgaria under the leadership of the Rousse District Prosecution Office. The proceedings are being coordinated with the Romanian police and prosecution services. An initial deadline of two months has been set for the investigation.

Searches in the homes of the suspects in Rousse yielded large amounts of drugs and cash.

On conviction, the suspects may face between three and 12 years' imprisonment, fines of 10,000 to 30,000 leva, and confiscation of some or all of their assets.