Alex Trelinski
A MAJOR migrant smuggling gang has been busted by the Policia Nacional in association with Europol and the US Homeland Security department.
The international crew based mainly in Spain and Italy also had associates in Bolivia, Libya, and Mexico.
Six leaders of the group have been imprisoned after police made 77 arrests in Spain including 32 detentions in the Barcelona area.
READ MORE:
- Pedro Sanchez’s government faces calls from right-wing opposition to declare a ‘migration emergency’ as shocking figures reveal that one migrant dies every 45 minutes trying to reach Spain
- Illegal taxi boat service shipping migrants and drugs worth €3 million is busted on Spain’s Costa Blanca
- ‘Migrant taxis’: How illegal immigrants pay drug lords up to €5,000 each to be ferried from Africa to Spain ‘in 20 minutes’
There were swoops in 10 other provinces including Malaga, Murcia, Valencia, Granada, Madrid, and the Balearic Islands.
Over 200 police officers took part in the operation with over 10 searches carried out in homes and travel agencies.
The Ministry of the Interior said that over €500,000 in cash had been seized.
The investigation started in 2022 and was prompted by authorities noting a significant increase in illegal immigration by Indian nationals using Spain as a transit country to Mexico, with the aim of heading to the United States or Canada.
Officers discovered the existence of an international criminal organization, based mainly in Spain around Barcelona, Madrid and Bilbao- plus Italy.
It had two independent branches but they were directly linked and managed by the gang bosses.
One of the enterprises promoted the illegal immigration to North America and the other branch dealt with citizens from Bolivia.
The India branch recruited migrants from their country of origin, from where they were transferred by plane to Bahrain and from there to Egypt to end their journey in Libya.
The organisation then gave them fake visas for the border crossing, as well as accommodation in the different cities of passage.
Once in Libya, they travelled on boats with more than 130 passengers to the Italian island of Lampedusa, enduring 28-hour journeys, without food and water.
When they hit the Italian mainland, the gang housed them in Turin, before flights to Barcelona or Zaragoza under fake passports with photos that bore a resemblance to the person they were impersonating.
In Spain, the travel agencies run by the leaders were in charge of providing the migrants with everything they needed to continue their journey to different cities in Mexico.
They were then handed over to the mafias operating on the border with the United States, who took them over for the final part of their journey.
The Bolivian branch had recruiters and travel agencies in Bolivia, which collaborated with agencies in Spain to organise migrant journeys to Istanbul or Cairo.
They were then put up in hotels until the gang sent them Spanish passports of naturalised Bolivian citizens of Bolivian origin who cooperated with the criminals.
With the bogus passports, the migrants travelled to Madrid or Barcelona passing through border control all in exchange for fees ranging between €8,000 and €10,000.
The Policia Nacional investigation is still active.
