With "international police" badges and for $26,500: people smugglers detained on Slovak border. PHOTOS
Operatives of the Chop Border Detachment, working together with National Police officers, have dismantled a stable and extensive illegal migration route.
Members of the criminal group specialised in smuggling draft-age men into Slovakia, Censor.NET reports.
Details
The perpetrators charged their "clients" US$26,500 for their services.
The criminal group consisted of four people: three residents of Zakarpattia and one resident of the Kyiv region. The perpetrators acted according to clearly assigned roles:
- The organiser used the internet to look for people willing to flee the country and coordinated the actions of his accomplices;
- The accomplices met the men, arranged temporary accommodation for them in local hotels, and later drove them to the border area;
- The guides were responsible for the direct crossing through forests and mountains near the settlement of Velykyi Bereznyi.
The guide, along with two fugitives from the Kyiv region, was detained in the act on the outskirts of the village of Zavosyno, just one kilometre from the state border.
After the first detention, law enforcement officers carried out a series of urgent searches. As a result, they managed to apprehend three more participants in the scheme.
During the investigative actions, officers seized cars, mobile phones, and flash drives, significant amounts of cash, bank cards, and rough notes, as well as camouflage clothing.
One of the detained smugglers tried to pose as a law enforcement officer. To disguise the criminal activity, he used forged documents and metal badges of an "international police" officer.
All four suspects have been formally served with notices of suspicion. The court has already imposed preventive measures on them: detention with the possibility of bail, as well as round-the-clock house arrest. The investigation is ongoing.
