site.btaPolice Neutralize Criminal Group Transporting Illegal Migrants through Bulgaria

The Directorate General for Combating Organized Crime (DGCOC) has neutralized a criminal group transporting illegal migrants through Bulgaria, the Interior Ministry said here on Friday. Officers from DGCOC's cross-border organized crime department started the investigation in 2022, assigned to them under a pre-trial proceedings initiated on the basis of information received from the State Agency for National Security (SANS). Police officers monitored the members of the group for a long time in order to collect sufficient data on the criminal activities carried out. In the course of the pre-trial proceedings, numerous operational activities were carried out in joint coordination with the prosecuting magistracy, including witness interrogations, inspections of crime scenes, searches and seizures, various reports, etc.

In the course of the special operation, carried out on November 7, DGCOC officers and SANS agents, under the guidance of the Sofia City Prosecutor's Office, detained three foreign and two Bulgarian citizens. The operation was carried out in coordination with Europol.

According to the information gathered, the criminal group took the illegal migrants in the area of the southeastern town of Elhovo and took them to certain points in the nearby regions of Yambol and Burgas. 

It provided them with transport and accommodation to and in the city of Sofia, and in the last stage of the trafficking,took the illegal aliens to the border with Serbia. According to the information, the criminal group was engaged in the illegal smuggling mainly of Syrian citizens, transported in groups of five to ten people.

Documents, mobile phones used by the members of the group for communication and transmission of coordinates through encrypted communication applications, as well as marijuana were seized. The information gathered shows that each migrant paid around EUR 3,000 for their transportation from Turkiye to Sofia, EUR 50 for accommodation in Sofia and EUR 1,500 for crossing the Bulgarian-Serbian border in the area of Dragoman (West Bulgaria).

The five detainees have criminal records and convictions, three of them with convictions related to illegal migration. The supervising prosecutor ordered each of the suspects to be detained for up to 72 hours in order to be brought to trial. 

On Thursday, at the request of the Sofia City Prosecutor's Office, the Sofia City Court has decided to remand all five in custody. 

According to the prosecutor's office, of the five persons charged, two are Bulgarian citizens, the rest are persons born in Syria, Palestine and Sudan. The investigation continues under the supervision and guidance of the Sofia City Prosecution Office.