German police busts suspected refugee smuggling ring Over a dozen suspects were linked to an operation to smuggle Syrians through the so-called Balkan route since 2019. Coordinated raids early on Tuesday involved hundreds of officers across several cities and states.

January 19, 2021   

(Deutsche Welle) German authorities launched coordinated raids nationwide targeting a human trafficking ring early on Tuesday, arresting suspects in Berlin, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia and Hesse, federal police said in a statement. Around 400 officers mobilized in total.

The raids stem from a major investigation run by public prosecutors in the Bavarian town of Kempten — near Germany’s borders with Liechtenstein, Austria and Switzerland — and a Bavarian office of Germany’s federal police, which specializes in border security and transport policing.

A total of 19 suspects, between the ages of 21 and 44, have been accused of smuggling refugees for large sums of money.

The human trafficking operation allegedly dates back to at least April 2019.

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