Three arrested in Thessaloniki for trafficking, abducting migrants

Greek police’s migration management unit in Thessaloniki arrested three men for detaining 16 migrants against their will in a warehouse at the district of Ionia, and demanding ransom from their relatives.

The suspects, who were identified as a 23-year-old Moldavian national, a 33-year-old Pakistani national and a 30-year-old Indian national, were led before a prosecutor with separate charges of forming a criminal gang, abduction, illegal transfer and trafficking of migrants in the country, and jeopardizing human lives.

Officers detained the three men after one of the suspects brought 12 new migrants to the warehouse in Ionia, where four more people were being held.

According to the police, the gang kept the migrants in a semi-basement whose entrance was blocked by a closet.