On 19 August, Bulgarian law enforcement authorities arrested eight suspected members of a gang involved in smuggling migrants into Europe. Four of the suspects arrested during the action day had already been identified as High Value Targets who played a leading role in the criminal activities. The gang charged up to EUR 6 000 per person and smuggled more than 130 people from Turkey into Bulgaria and then on to other European destinations via the Western Balkan route.
A total of 15 locations were raided in the region of the Bulgarian city of Plovdiv, with Europol experts as well as Romanian and Moldovan police officers deployed on the ground to support the Bulgarian authorities in their enforcement measures.
As a result of these searches, law enforcement authorities seized 13 mobile phones, a weapon and ammunition, and documents for vehicles related to migrant smuggling incidents in Bulgaria.
This action was carried out in the framework of a Europol-coordinated regional Operational Taskforce based in Sofia, which focuses on criminal networks smuggling migrants from Türkiye across Bulgaria towards Western Europe.
An international network dedicated to migrant smuggling
The smuggling activities resembled a complex enterprise involving leaders, organisers and facilitators of different nationalities.
The main leaders were Syrian and Jordanian nationals, who would coordinate the criminal activities with other smugglers located in Türkiye and along the Western Balkan route. Bulgarian nationals were responsible for the logistics, namely finding and purchasing cars used for the transportation of the migrants, and registering them under the names of other individuals in exchange for a small sum of money. The gang would also use Moldovan drivers recruited over the internet.
Since April of this year, 17 migrant smuggling incidents linked to this gang have been identified. One of the main ringleaders was already known to law enforcement, having been investigated in the past for migrant smuggling activities in Austria and Croatia.
From Türkiye to the Western Balkans using Moldovan drivers
The irregular migrants would cross the border between Türkiye and Bulgaria on foot, using the services of guides provided by the organisers in Türkiye. After having crossed the border, they would be met by Moldovan drivers who would transport them to the Bulgarian-Serbian or Bulgarian-Romanian border.
The drivers were provided with the cars and GPS coordinates and were sent during the night to pick up the migrants at agreed locations. The drivers would communicate with other members of the gang using mobile apps with disappearing messages. They would receive EUR 100 per person transported, averaging between EUR 700 and EUR 1 000 per journey.
The migrants paid around EUR 6 000 to be smuggled into Bosnia and Herzegovina, and more than EUR 4 000 to be transported to Serbia.
Europol support
Europol’s European Migrant Smuggling Centre has been supporting the work of the Taskforce since its establishment.
Extensive operational analysis was carried out to identify the different targets and map out their criminal activities. Europol also brought together the different countries involved to jointly prepare for the final phase of the investigation.
Two Europol experts deployed to Sofia in the framework of the regional Operational Taskforce were on the ground during the action, helping the law enforcement authorities by providing real-time cross-checks against Europol’s databases.
