In a series of raids, authorities arrested eight alleged members of a migrant smuggling ring, including four high-value targets, Europol said in a prepared statement.
Ina Mihaylova, a Europol spokesperson, told OCCRP that the investigation is ongoing and that there could be additional arrests.
Investigators said the gang would charge each migrant up to €6,000 (US$6,668) to smuggle them into Europe. More than 130 people are known to have used their services to obtain passage from Turkey into Bulgaria on foot, before continuing on to other European countries by car.
Europol said that the ring’s leaders, who hail from Syria and Jordan, coordinated with other smugglers, along a known Western Balkan smuggling route, to facilitate their crossings.
Transportation was handled by Bulgarian nationals, who purchased the vehicles used and then registered them under different names for a fee. The gang also used Moldovan drivers recruited over the internet to transport the migrants from Bulgaria into Serbia or Romania, authorities said.
Bulgarian police identified and raided 15 locations tied to the smuggling ring in the city of Plovdiv. In addition to the eight arrests, police seized mobile phones, weapons, and documents outlining the group’s criminal activities.
Mihaylova said that the operation, which began in September 2023, is part of a broader Europol-coordinated task force based in Sofia. Its focus, she said, is to disrupt transnational criminal networks engaged in migrant smuggling from Turkey, through the Balkans, and into Western Europe.
Since April 2024, authorities have identified 17 such migrant smuggling networks, Europol said.