Police officers among those arrested in Pirot! Criminal group suspected of migrant smuggling

UKP officers; Photo: MUP Srbije

By order of the Public Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime, in cooperation with the UKP (criminal investigations police), the Service for Combating Organized Crime and as part of a joint investigation by the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP) and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Bulgaria aimed at uncovering and breaking up aninternational network of people smugglers - with the support of EUROPOL - five persons, including two police officers, were detained today in the territory of the town of Pirot in Serbia.

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"This organized criminal group is accused of committing the criminal offense of illegal crossing of the state border and people smuggling," the prosecution said in a statement.

It added that the organized criminal group was led by N.DZ. - who on nine occasions organized the illegal crossing of the border between the Republic of Bulgaria and the Republic of Serbia, and then organized illegal transit and stay of irregular migrants, from the vicinity of the state border, to Belgrade.

The suspicion is that this organized criminal group, from January to July of this year, enabled at least 201 irregular migrants to illegally cross the state border between Serbia and Bulgaria, illegally stay in the Vlasinsko Lake area, as well as illegally transport them through the territory of Serbia with the aim of the migrants eventually illegally reaching EU countries.

"It is suspected that the role of police officers was to provide information about patrols and their movement routes, as well as police officers' work schedule. On several occasions the police officers who have been arrested drove their cars with the task of informing other members of the organized criminal group about possible patrols on the way to places where irregular migrants would disembark near Belgrade, that is, they would move in front of a van transporting migrants, to 'clear the road'. It is suspected that the police officers received at least 700 euros from the organizers for each transit they were involved in," the prosecution said.

After spending (up to 48 hours) in police detention, all the arrested persons will be brought to the Public Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime, and will have criminal complaints filed against them.

(Telegraf.rs)