Bulgarian authorities, supported by Europol, dismantled a criminal network smuggling migrants from Türkiye via Bulgaria and Serbia towards Western Southern Europe. The investigation, involving Greek and Romanian authorities, was conducted in the framework of a regional Operational Task Force set up to investigate migrant smuggling networks using Bulgaria as a transit country.

The action day led to:

• 8 arrests (one High Value Target)
• 11 location searches
• Seizures including: cash, Hawala accountancy notebooks and documents
• One Romanian citizen found during the searches has been identified as a person wanted by Austria.

The investigation was initiated at the beginning of 2023 when Bulgarian authorities found migrants smuggled by this network. So far, national authorities have detected 15 smuggling incidents. The smuggling network allegedly facilitated the illegal secondary movements of over 700 irregular migrants towards other parts of the EU. The suspected ringleaders, predominantly Syrian nationals, coordinated the smuggling activities while maintaining contacts with smugglers and hawaladars in Turkey and Greece, as well as in other countries along the smuggling route. The suspects facilitated the transportation of migrants from the Turkish-Bulgarian border to accommodations in the region of Sofia. After a short stay there, they were further transported to the Bulgarian-Serbian border.

Migrants had to deposit EUR 3 000 to EUR 5 000 in Hawala offices before going to the border

Migrants had to pay significant deposits before being taken across the green border between Türkiye and Bulgaria. They paid between EUR 3 000 and EUR 5 000 in Hawala offices in Istanbul and were then smuggled by guides connected to the Turkish members of the criminal network. Once on Bulgarian territory, the migrants were picked up by drivers of Bulgarian, Romanian and Syrian nationalities, who transported them to accommodations in Sofia. For the transportation, the smuggling network used different vehicles such as cars, vans and even trucks.

In one case, the suspects transported 150 migrants in a lorry. Criminals use this modus operandi to maximise their profits when the demand for smuggling services is high. In this particular case, drivers transported the migrants while driving at fast speeds, to escape police checks. This dangerous modus operandi puts the lives of migrants and bystanders at great risk.

Europol support and joint actions

Extensive operational analysis was carried out to identify the different targets and map their criminal activities. Europol also brought together the different countries involved to jointly prepare for the final phase of the investigation.

Two Europol experts deployed to Sofia in the framework of the regional Operational Taskforce were on the ground during the action day, helping law enforcement authorities with cross-checks in real-time against Europol’s databases.

Police officers from the Hellenic Police, Romanian Border Police and Romanian Police (Service for Combating Organised Crime) were deployed on the spot to support the investigative measures.

Europol’s European Migrant Smuggling Centre has been supporting the work of the Task Force since its establishment