site.btaBorder Police Uncovers Migrant Trafficking Channel, Six Detained

On Wednesday morning, the Border Police General Directorate launched an operation on the territory of Sofia and Pernik to neutralize a migrant trafficking channel from the Turkish to the Romanian border, the press centre of the General Directorate said.

The criminal activity of the group started after strengthening border control at the Bulgarian-Serbian border. Officers from the Border Police Department in Silistra began work on the case, when several attempts to transfer illegal migrants across the land border with Romania were detected in the area of the regional city. Five pre-trial proceedings were instituted and three persons were arrested and charged.

On Wednesday, Border Police officers, with the assistance of the Sofia Directorate of the Interior and the Regional Directorate of the Interrior in Pernik, detained three more. They recruited migrants mainly in the capital, who entered Bulgaria in previous periods and were registered with the refugee agency. After the appropriate payment, they assisted their movement through Bulgaria to the Bulgarian-Romanian border in the region of Silistra. Two more people are also wanted. 

Procedural-investigative actions were carried out, during which mobile phones, a gun - legally owned and unauthorized ammunition, , a night vision device, a radio station, a searchlight and other items and objects related to the pre-trial proceedings were found and confiscated. Vehicles used to transport the migrants were also confiscated.

The investigation on the case is still ongoing.