Dismantled, by the Organized Crime and Human Trafficking Sub-Directorate, alien trafficking ringthrough the Athens International Airport “El. Venizelos”, to countries of the European Union.

As part of the operation, which took place on Monday 8 July, five foreign members of the spiral were arrested (aged 31, 36, 38, 39 and 60 years old) and a case file was filed against them, as the case may be, for forming and joining a criminal organization, forgery, possession of third party documents and violation of the Immigration Code.

Five other foreigners are included in the case file who supported the action of the criminal organization, while during the operation, a 33-year-old foreigner was identified and arrested who was wanted on a European arrest warrant, by German authorities, as a smuggler of illegal immigrants.

According to ELAS, the 39-year-old head of the organization set up a legitimate company dealing with the sale of food and then rented space, where it would pretend to be the company’s headquarters. However, he turned this space into a document-forgery training workshop, equipping it with the necessary raw materials, since he had previously procured a large amount of genuine travel documents of third parties from various countries, which are mainly classified as stolen or lost.

The spiral was looking for foreigners who wanted to leave the country illegally, by air, with destination European countries. The leader had assigned this responsibility to the 60-year-old member, who had developed a special social profile, maintaining a wide circle of contacts and connections in the haunts frequented by foreigners who wished to leave the country.

As far as the monetary transactions of the trafficked foreigners with the ring are concerned, the criminal organization offered the clients the tempting “route” of payment, without traces, both for their protection and to ensure the release of the amount they paid, after the transaction was completed. moving to the country of their choice. The payments were made in a cafe in the center of Athens, where a 36-year-old member of the organization had the role of mediator. At the same time, there was the choice of payment method, through the non-banking “hawala” money transfer system, which relies on mutual trust between senders, receivers and “hawaladar” intermediaries who may be located in different cities or countries. In addition, the criminal organization also offered the possibility of payment by the “guarantee” method, where the foreigner deposited money with the “hawaladar” who in this case acted as a guarantor and received a piece of paper containing a secret code. Upon successful completion of his transition to the final destination, the alien would reveal the code to the members of the organization and then the members would receive the monetary remuneration for the services they provided.

Subsequently, foreigners were transferred to Athens Airport and the members of the organization accompanied and guided them through all stages of control in the airport environment, until their arrival at the departure gate of the flight. The amounts paid ranged from 3,000 to 15,000 euros.

An important role in the disclosure of the method of action was the prevention of five cases of trafficking of foreigners by the criminal network, by the police officers of the Athens Airport Police Department.

From the searches in the house-laboratory, in the cafeteria and in their homes, the following were seized:

– Number of passports, identity cards, residence permits and third-party capacity permits of various countries,

– Equipment suitable for the preparation and falsification of documents,

– The sums of 5,595 euros, 1,773 dollars, 80 British pounds and 300 Moldovan LEU,

– Number of bank cards,

– Numerous clippings and documents of monetary transactions, as well as notebooks with relevant data and

– The “business” car of the organization.

Those arrested were taken to the Athens District Attorney and brought before an investigator.