Europol supported the French Gendarmerie nationale (Section de Recherche de Strasbourg) in dismantling an organised criminal network involved in the smuggling of migrants across the EU borders crossing the so-called Balkan route. The investigation was also supported by Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, and Serbia through operational information shared via Europol. Around 300 gendarmerie officers took part of the action day against this network, which took place on 1 April 2025. One part of the action day, supported by the Polizia di Stato, took place in the north of Italy where one of the leaders of the criminal network was located.

At the end of 2022, the French Gendarmerie in Strasbourg initiated an investigation against a criminal network involved in the smuggling of migrants from Serbia into the EU. The criminal network was mainly active across the Serbian-Hungarian and Greek-Turkish borders. However, smuggling operations linked to this network were also detected at intra-Schengen borders, notably at the Austrian-Hungarian and the Austrian-Croatian borders.

The operational actions on 1 April 2025 led to:

• 24 arrests
• 24 house searches
• Seizures including 3 vehicles with an estimated value of over EUR 115 000 and communication devices.

The alleged organisers of the network, based in another EU country, coordinated the activities together with two French nationals, based in France, in the region of Alsace near Germany. The latter managed the logistics including the recruitment of the drivers in Strasbourg and its suburbs, and in the region of Paris. This network was in charge of only one segment of the transportation. This tactic seeks to limit the threat to the entire network in cases where some members are arrested by law enforcement authorities.

Over 40 drivers identified

The drivers were provided with rental vehicles, either cars or vans and were sent to the area of Szeged at the border with Serbia. Once in the area, the drivers coordinated with local smugglers when and from where to pick up the migrants in order to further transport them on to Hungary, Austria or Slovenia. At the arrival in the EU, the migrants were handed over to other smuggling networks. Over 40 drivers were identified during the investigation. 

During the transportation, the drivers loaded as many people as possible into the back of vans without any consideration for their safety in order to increase profits. Drivers would have received up to EUR 12 000 for transporting over 30 migrants at once. The suspected smugglers, who were responsible for the logistics, paid the drivers after the transportation upon receipt of a video to prove that the smuggling had been successful.

Europol facilitated the exchange of information and provided operational coordination and analytical support. During the action day, Europol deployed an expert to France to facilitate the real-time exchange of information and cross-check operational information against Europol’s databases, providing leads to investigators in the field.