Six individuals were arrested across Europe this week for their alleged involvement in a complex human trafficking scheme that exploited the European Union’s Schengen porous borders to smuggle illegals into the UK.
Europol explained the arrests are the result of a large investigation involving 17 different European nations that identified the smuggling, document fraud, and money laundering network allegedly organized by a Bologna-based Pakistani national.
The trafficking scheme allegedly saw migrants first enter E.U. nations using genuine passports and, in some cases, valid tourist visas for the Schengen open borders area. Once the migrants arrived at a E.U. nation they would then destroy their legitimate passports and dispose of their identity documents — replacing them with counterfeit ones provided by the smugglers.
The ultimate goal of the scheme saw the use of the forged documentation to enter the United Kingdom by air. It is reportedly estimated hundreds of migrants were smuggled into the U.K. through this scheme over the past two years.
The six announced arrests took place across Italy, Spain, Austria, and the United Kingdom, with at least ten search warrants. Multiple identification documents, electronic equipment, evidence, and a large amount of cash were seized by participating law enforcement agencies.
Europol detailed that the operation identified multiple cells of the smuggling ring operating across the European Union.
One such cell was ran by Afghan and Pakistani nationals in Vienna, Austria, and is believed to have been tasked with the supply of the false identification documents. Another cell based in Spain is also believed to have supplied a large number of counterfeit docments — facilitating the distribution of over a thousand false documents sent from routers from United Arab Emirates to the E.U., North America, South America, and the Caribbean.
Proceeds from the smuggling operations were presumptively laundered mainly through mobile phone shops and other service providers. It is believed that the criminals generated over two million euros in illegal proceeds through the complex smuggling scheme.
The Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reports the presumptive “mastermind” of the smuggling operation is a 40 year-old Pakistani man residing in the city of Bologna. Per the newspaper, the unnamed Pakistani national had a “clean” criminal record prior to the operation and had already completed the paperwork procedures towards obtaining Italian citizenship.
Bologna police officers arrested the Pakistani man on Tuesday, September 22 and he is expected to appear before a local court on Friday, September 24 for a preliminary hearing on charges of conspiracy to facilitate illegal immigration and money laundering.
Corriere detailed that four other individuals suspected to be involved in the smuggling scheme in various capacities were searched and questioned by Bologna law enforcement officials in the presence of attorneys.
According to Corriere, two of the questioned man are also Pakistani nationals. They reportedly run a Bologna-based travel agencies suspected to have played a role in the scheme — arranging flights not just to Italy, but to Belgium, Finland, Sweden, Portugal, and the Netherlands, among other E.U. nations.
Per the Italian newspaper, some of the flights arranged for the migrants using the forged documentation provided by the smugglers landed in Dublin, Ireland. Upon arriving, complicit taxi drivers would bring the migrants to Belfast and, from there, to any of the major U.K. cities, where the now-smuggled migrants would allegedly declare themselves to be “Afghan refugees.”
On Wednesday, the BBC identified the three suspects arrested in Britain as Iqbal Khokhar of Slough, Iljit Chopra of Brentford, and Adil Khan of East London’s Newham. The three men appeared before an East Berkshire Magistrates’ Court in Slough and reportedly remain in custody.
Spain’s National Police, for its part, informed on Wednesday that one of the six arrested men was detained in Madrid.