15-03-2019
The operative agents of Ukraine, the Czech Republic,
Slovakia and Poland conducted a large-scale special operation and detained a
group of the criminals who illegally transported illegal migrants across the
border of Ukraine to the EU.
This was reported by the press
service of the
State Border Guard Service of Ukraine.
It is noted that the border guards of the four
countries have established 35 persons involved in the illegal criminal group,
citizens of Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Slovakia and Belarus.
The offenders were engaged in illegal transportation
of immigrants from South-East Asia across the state border to the neighboring
countries, in particular the Slovak Republic, the Republic of Poland and
Hungary, with a view to their further delivery to the countries of Western
Europe, namely Germany.
According to the SBGS, the sphere of activity of
criminals stretched for hundreds and thousands of kilometers from the border on
Russia.
Then, the groups of illegal migrants were formed in
the cities of Kiev and Odessa, after which they were secretly delivered to
Transcarpathian region for illegal transportation across the state border with
the help of local guides to the countries of the European Union.
Afterwards they carried out transit transportation of
the “travelers” to the territory of Slovakia, Poland, the Czech
Republic up to Berlin and Dresden.
It is reported that members of the criminal group came
to the attention of the law enforcement officers in spring of last year, after
which the SBGS, SSU and the National Police performed the operation on exposing
the schemes of the illegal migration channel.
In particular, 7 criminal proceedings were opened,
eight defendants were informed of suspicion, and two criminal proceedings on
charges of 2 persons were sent to the court.
The SBGSU noted that despite the measures of law
enforcement, both in Ukraine and in neighboring Slovakia and Poland, the
activities of the criminal group did not stop, so it was decided to hold a
joint special operation under the conditional name “Long Way”.
Within the framework of international cooperation,
Ukrainian operatives have established active cooperation with colleagues from
the Czech Republic, where the main figures of the criminal group, the vast
majority of whom come from Ukraine, lived permanently.
It is noted that during the complex of activities in
cooperation with the operational units of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and
Poland as a whole 16 episodes of illegal smuggling of illegal migrants were
documented, mostly citizens of Vietnam and Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, across the
state border of Ukraine.
Their total number was about 100 persons. For each of
them an income of more than 2500 US dollars was received.
It is reported that the joint group “Long
Way” on March 11 simultaneously performed a number of searches and
detained and interrogated organizers of the specified cross-border criminal
group.
In particular, it is reported that the searches were conducted at 7 addresses of the defendants in the settlements of Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv and Transcarpathian regions.
Source:https://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2019/03/15/7209258/
