Five people, including four Iraqis, a German and a Turkish citizen, have been arrested after being involved in a criminal network for the smuggling of migrants that operated in Hungary, Serbia, Germany and Norway.
As About Hungary, a website managed by the Hungarian Prime Minister’s international communication office, reports, this organisation focused on the irregular transportation of individuals to Western Europe, with Germany as the main destination, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
“The prosecutor’s office said in a statement that it sought prison sentences and their expulsion from the country,” the statement issued by the prosecutor’s office reads.
During an attempt to evade arrest on Hungary’s M5 motorway last November, a member of the group fired a gas pistol at Hungarian police officers, prompting the action.
Last November, law enforcement authorities tried to intercept a van along a highway near Budapest. Inside the van were two Iraqi nationals who were transporting 21 Syrian migrants illegally. According to the authorities, these migrants were crammed into a windowless, poorly ventilated compartment.
As police chased the van, the driver’s accomplice fired several rounds from a gas pistol at the officers. Eventually, the van stopped while both suspects fled on foot. The accomplice continued to shoot at the police, but luckily no one was injured.
The four Iraqi nationals have been charged with various offences, including their involvement in a criminal organisation for financial gain, assisting individuals in crossing state borders, ill-treatment of smuggled individuals, and participation in smuggling armed men. The prosecution has stated that German and Turkish citizens are facing charges as accomplices in this case.
Last month, a local court in Hungary arrested two people while another person was detained, all of whom were implicated in two criminal organisations transporting foreign migrants. In this regard, Hungarian customs officers managed to identify a total of 54 people who were connected to these two cases.
During the same period, another two persons engaged in smuggling, both Belgian residents, were sentenced to ten years of imprisonment each. The court of Budapest ruled that these smugglers were responsible for transporting numerous irregular migrants in a truck that lacked adequate ventilation.
The court’s official statement also revealed that the defendants had attempted to transport 38 individuals from Turkey, India, and Syria. This attempt occurred in April last year and involved moving these people from the Hungary-Serbia border to Austria.