Border guards liquidated cross-border human trafficking channel
Employees of the State Border Guard Service, together with representatives of the National Police of Ukraine and the Migration Police of the Odessa region, within the framework of cooperation with law enforcement agencies of France, stopped the functioning of the human trafficking channel.
At the end of last year, law enforcement agencies of Ukraine, together with European colleagues, launched measures to expose a group of persons involved in the recruitment and transfer to the French Republic of Ukrainian citizens for the purpose of illegal activities related to human trafficking and the seizure of funds by fraudulent method.
As part of the criminal proceedings, law enforcement officers conducted authorized searches of the places of residence of all defendants in the case both on the territory of Ukraine and in France. A number of passport documents, SIM cards of various operators, bank cards, weapons and narcotic substances were found in the homes of criminals.
In total, almost 50 searches were carried out and 8 defendants in the criminal case were detained. Law enforcement officers managed to uncover the entire scheme of illegal activities, determined the role and place of each of the persons involved in the scheme and simultaneously detain the defendants in different cities and countries.
During the operational measures, the security forces found out that a group of persons on the territory of Ukraine was selecting and recruiting persons with a low social standard of living, mostly Roma.
The criminals offered the victims a so-called “trip through Europe”, for which the latter also had to receive 200-300 euros each. Of course, the conditions and the final result of such a tour were not told.
Upon arrival in the final country of the trip, which turned out to be the Republic of France, the attackers took away the travelers' documents and threatened to create “problems” with local law enforcement agencies. The only condition for the return of the “hostages” home was the registration in France of the status of “refugee”. After such actions, the persons were awarded social compensation in the amount of 300 euros per month, for nine months. Using the position of the victims, the attackers obtained bank cards and funds that went to the accounts, after which they returned the persons to Ukraine.
The detection of the group of criminals took place as a result of a complex of activities carried out by the employees of the State Border Guard Service together with employees of the migration police, the UCR, the SU GUNP in the Odessa region and with the strong support of the special unit “DOZOR” under the procedural guidance of the Odessa Regional Prosecutor's Office.
Further investigative actions are currently underway. It is previously known that more than 100 people were victims of fraudsters.
Press service of the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine
