Police in five European countries launched a cross-border operation against people smuggling on Tuesday and made several arrests, German authorities said.
Officers in Belgium, Britain, France and the Netherlands as well as Germany staged dawn raids with “hundreds of officers”, said police in the northwestern German city of Osnabrueck, considered a major hub for the networks.
“There were numerous searches and arrests in several states” in the operation coordinated by Europol and European Union judicial agency Eurojust, the German police said in a statement.
A spokesman declined to provide further details but said police would release more information in the course of the day.
Germany’s Der Spiegel reported that the operation targeted organised groups taking migrants to England.
It quoted Osnabrueck police as saying that the network had smuggled up to 10,000 people via the Channel in the last 12 to 18 months in a highly lucrative scheme.
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Source: Guardian Newspaper
