Agents of the National Police, in collaboration with EUROPOL, They have dismantled a criminal network dedicated to human trafficking and child abduction protection centers, with destination to France and Belgium, in an operation in which 29 people have been arrested, one of them in Bilbao.
As reported this morning by the National Police, for this used buses from companies located in Morocco, Spain and France whose starting point was the port of Almeria; and the organization had a network of recruiters specialized by nationality: Moroccan, Algerian, Malian and Syrian.
Specifically, one of its members removed Malian minors from a protection center in Almería to be trafficked to Europe.
During this operation 29 people have been arrested for favoring clandestine immigration, abduction of minors in protection centers, membership of a criminal organization and crime against public health.
From them, 26 have been arrested in Spain (11 in Almería, 5 in Murcia, 3 in Alicante, 3 in Barcelona, 2 in Valencia, 1 in Tarragona and 1 in Bilbao) and three in France. Eleven have entered provisional prison without bail. After 14 entries and records, more than 33,000 euros have been intervened, various documentation, computer equipment, more than 200 kilograms of hashish, a vehicle and a trailer.
And, according to the note, this criminal network also used buses for the traffic of hashish, smuggling of tobacco and hunting species, hiding the goods in holes made for this purpose.
The starting point was the Port of Almería, from where several of the detainees they recruited immigrants who had just arrived in Spain by boat or in another clandestine way. They offered to take them by bus to France or Brussels, charging them up to three times more than a regular passenger.
Also in Almería, the criminal organization had the services of a person who offered accommodation to irregular immigrants in their apartments in exchange for a high economic consideration, having to pay for sleeping crammed in rooms. In addition, the captors controlled tobacco smuggling, hashish trafficking and hunting species in the port.
From Almería, buses started two routes, one bound for Strasbourg (France) and the other bound for Brussels (Belgium), and both routes had numerous stops along the Mediterranean coast for the arrival of more immigrants.
“They are called ‘black lockers’ and were located in hotels or call centers, known to immigrants, located in Murcia, Alicante, Barcelona and Tarragona. They got to professionalize the business in the bus stations from Madrid, Barcelona and Murcia counting on solid criminal contacts that got them irregular passengers and unaccompanied foreign minors“the statement added.
When arriving at La Junquera all the irregular passengers got off and separated them as a group for them to continue by taxi to the first service station in France, where they would get back on the bus to continue the journey.
To put an end to the criminal network, a police operation was designed to carry out 14 simultaneous entries and searches in the homes and premises settled by the detainees: six in Almería, three in Murcia, one in Alicante, two in Barcelona, one in Tarragona and one in France.
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