ANKARA
Spanish police on Tuesday have arrested members of an international human trafficking group, which smuggled families from Syria into the European Union.
Eighteen people, including the criminal organization's suspected leader, a Lebanese national who charged up to 10,000 euro (12,000 USD) per person, were arrested in a special operation in Madrid, a police statement said on Tuesday.
The arrested traffickers include eight Lebanese nationals, three Syrians, a Moroccan, an Ecuadorian, a Ukrainian and four Spanish nationals, two of them of Lebanese origin.
"The criminal organization mainly recruited Syrians who were driven from their homes by the conflict in their country. The gang generally selected middle class families," the statement said.
"The Syrians paid for the right to plane tickets, and accommodation in the various transit nations with falsified documents," the statement added.
The police said they started investigating the case in April after the suspicious entry of various Syrian nationals at Madrid's airport. The criminal gang transported the Syrians to Asia and then to a city in South America, usually one in Brazil. From there, they flew them to Madrid.
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, over 3 million have fled Syria to its immediate neighbors Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq. 6.5 million are internally displaced within Syria.
Meanwhile, fewer than 150,000 Syrians have requested asylum in the European Union, while member states have pledged to resettle a further 33,000 Syrians.
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