18 people arrested for migrant smuggling

Greek police arrested 18 people believed to be members of a transnational criminal organization involved in migrant trafficking.

The arrests took place in a major police operation in Attica and Thessaloniki on December 20., during which officers arrested the group’s alleged leader, along with 13 irregular immigrants who will be deported. Among the migrants was a foreign national with a pending arrest warrant for rape.

The members of the gang picked up migrants who had entered Greece mainly from forested areas in the border region of Evros, using rented or stolen vehicles, and transported them to safe houses in Thessaloniki and later in Athens, where they were supplied with travel documents that would allow them to continue to other EU countries.