site.btaRomanian, Bulgarian Law Enforcers Bust Migrant Trafficking Ring

Romanian and Bulgarian law enforcers have busted a criminal ring using private taxi services to transport migrants from Turkey to Western Europe, the Bulgarian Interior Ministry said in a press release on Tuesday.

The press release specified that the Romanian Police, the Romanian Border Police and the Bulgarian Directorate General for Combating Organized Crime arrested eight suspects (Romanian and Syrian nationals) who transported migrants from Bulgaria and Romania and on to Western Europe. The investigation was supported by Austria, Germany and Hungary. Europol has assisted the cross-border cooperation and coordination among the five EU Member States, the Interior Ministry added.  

Thirty-two migrants were found at nine residences that were searched in Romania: nine Iraqis, 21 Syrians, and two of unidentified nationality. Documents, computer hardware and cash were seized.

The crime ring operated from Bucharest and used Timisoara as a hub for accommodation and facilitation of migrants' transportation to Western Europe. The suspects solicited customers from the Middle East, mainly Syria, bound for Germany and other West European countries.

The ring leader - a Syrian who has been resident in Romania for three years, liaised with other key organizers based in Istanbul. He acted as a regional coordinator of the criminal activity on this stretch of the route. He supposedly hired Romanian nationals, usually private taxi drivers, to carry the migrants, the press release said further.

Between February and May 2024 alone, the Romanian authorities detected five cases of smuggling a total of 70 illegal migrants. They were transported in trucks, hidden in the cargo. Each migrant paid between EUR 5,000 and 10,000 to be taken to their final destination.