Spanish police bust int'l migrant-smuggling ring

OVIEDO, Spain

Spanish police said on Thursday that they have busted an international migrant-smuggling ring that illegally transported migrants from Pakistan into the EU.

Fifteen people were arrested in Spain, Romania, Croatia, and Slovenia, including the ring’s suspected leader.

Police intercepted the gang’s last operation at the border between Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Authorities discovered 77 Pakistani migrants, including four minors, traveling in an eight square-meter (86 square-foot) cargo container on a truck.

The migrants were traveling in “infrahuman conditions,” according to Spanish police, and had to punch holes in the cargo box’s roof to breathe.

“The police action helped avoid what could have been a tragedy,” said the police statement.

The investigation into the illegal migration ring began more than nine months ago when a Spanish citizen was found in Slovenia, carrying 53 irregular migrants in a truck.

Spanish officials then collaborated with authorities in seven European countries and EUROPOL to take down the ring.

The organization’s modus operandi involved picking up Pakistani migrants from a refugee camp in the Bosnian town of Bihac. The smuggling rings’ “shepherds” would then guide the migrants by foot over the mountains that separate Bosnia-Herzegovina from Croatia.

From there, the migrants were told to get into the small cargo containers, which brought them close to the Slovenian border. Then they got out of the containers and hiked across uncontrolled parts of the border to avoid getting caught.

Once in Slovenia, the migrants got back in the trucks and continued to Italy. Then they went to their final destinations, mainly Spain and Germany.

Police said the migrants using their services usually spent between €12,000 ($13,860) and €20,000 ($23,000) on the entire journey from Pakistan into the EU.

The organization has brought at least 400 migrants into the EU in recent months and has earned more than €2 million, according to Spanish police estimates.