Bangladeshis involved in Greece based people-smuggling network: Europol

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Investigations by Europol revealed that Bangladesh nationals run one of the two Athens-based networks, while Sudanese run the others involved in forging travels documents to smuggle people into Europe.

With the support of Europol, 16 persons suspected of forgery of documents on a large scale and the smuggling of irregular migrants have been arrested in Greece, and 3 in the Czech Republic, says a report by Europol on May 31.

These two parallel investigations supported and coordinated by Europol targeted a network of organized crime groups involved in forging documents (passports, ID cards, visas) to third country nationals, it said.

The forged documents were subsequently provided to irregular migrants to enter the EU or to legalise their stays there.

However, the report did not reveal the identity of the arrestees.

The investigation in Greece highlighted the structure and the hierarchy of the Athens-based network, which was composed of 2 distinct criminal groups, one composed of Bangladeshi nationals (‘Criminal Group A’) and the second
one of Sudanese nationals (‘Criminal Group B’).

Investigations revealed that the Criminal Group A sent via courier services at least 126 parcels containing travel documents, and Criminal Group B 431 parcels over the course of the last year only.

The fees for the forged documents ranged from EUR 100 to EUR 3 000 per piece depending on the quality, type and country of issue. The documents forged by these two criminal groups included passports, national ID cards, Schengen visas, driving licenses, asylum seeker’s registration cards and residence permits.

In parallel with the activity of these two criminal groups, the Czech Police began investigating in November 2014.

This Czech organized crime group produced fake Schengen visas. It was information provided by the Czech authorities to Europol will be allowed for the further identification of the two criminal groups in Greece, the report stated.

Rob Wainwright, Europol Director, said: “In the last two years we have seen criminal gangs increasingly investing more in the production of fake documents to support a growing criminal market associated with the migrant crisis.

This operation shows our shared determination in Europe to investigate and disrupt those criminals involved in this illegal activity.”

During this investigation, 19 EU Member States and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement assisted the lead investigators.

Source: Ittefaq