Success! – Police tied up loose ends in international people smuggling case

The Hungarian police have wound up an international people smuggling network that handled illegal migrants from Arab and African countries via Serbia for payments of 500-1,000 euros per person in 2014.

The smugglers, Polish, Libyan, Tunisian and Syrian citizens, took migrants from Hungary’s border with Serbia to western Europe, the national police investigation office said on its website on Sunday.

Proceedings against the network’s organisers and suppliers have been concluded in Hungary and

the Austrian and German authorities have also prosecuted and convicted gang members.

Hungarian investigators identified a 34-year-old man who accompanied migrants to the Serbian-Hungarian border before the security fence was built. He was issued with an international and European arrest warrant but was convicted in Italy of other crimes in the meantime and served his sentence in a Parma prison.

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The Italian authorities handed him over to the Hungarian police on Friday. He has been detained and questioned by Hungarian investigators on suspicion of crimes committed six years ago. A court will decide on Monday whether to place him in pre-trial detention, the statement said.

Source: MTI