BERLIN: A suspected international smuggling organization was shut down by German police on Wednesday in one of the biggest moves to date against criminals cashing in on the migrant crisis sweeping the country.
The police said they had raided several buildings in three states and arrested one suspect, adding that a total of 17 people were suspected of involvement in smuggling mainly Lebanese and Syrian citizens to Germany by air, forging documents and providing false passports.
Germany has seen a massive influx of refugees and migrants, mainly from the Middle-East, Africa and Afghanistan, this year, many of whom use traffickers to complete parts of their journeys.
Officials expect between 800,000 and 1 million people will seek asylum in Germany this year, making the country by far the biggest destination for migrants headed toward Western Europe.
Chancellor Angela Merkel and her conservative Christian Democrats have seen their popularity ratings slide as more migrants keep pouring into the country, which also faces a wave of politically motivated violence against migrants and those helping them.
Mounting public unease, localized outbursts of violence and concern about the country’s capacity to welcome more migrants this winter have all put increasing pressure on Berlin to end its open-door refugee policy.
Although the government has resisted putting an upper limit on the number of refugees it is willing to take, and Ms. Merkel has largely stood by her policy of welcome, government officials have sounded tougher in recent days about deporting those without legitimate asylum claims and going after smugglers.
The migrant influx has created an opportunity for criminal rings from the Balkans to Western Europe. People-traffickers have raised prices, switched to charging migrants upfront, and grown increasingly ruthless in their tactics, frequently putting the lives of the people they smuggle at risk. In August, police in Austria found the corpses of 71 migrants left abandoned by smugglers in an airtight refrigerator truck by a highway.
Sandra Perlebach, spokeswoman for the federal police in Hannover, said the alleged members of the smuggling ring targeted in Wednesday’s raid were charging €10,000 per person to smuggle migrants into Germany and had been actively inciting more people to make the journey.
“In some cases, the accused seem to have generated the decision to travel illegally to Germany by pointing to their allegedly available criminal logistics.”
During coordinated raids on Wednesday starting at 6 a.m. local time, 571 police federal police officers supported by local police forces searched residential and business premises in the western German city of Essen, Gelsenkirchen, Hildesheim as well as other locations in the German states of North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony and Baden-Württemberg.
The main accused, arrested in Essen, is a 24-year-old Lebanese citizen who allegedly used his broad international contacts to obtain forged documents and smuggle migrants on their way to Germany.
During their raid, the police found several machetes, swords, knives and ammunition for handguns, as well as a laser targeting device for a weapon and various passports.
The dismantled ring appeared to have focused on smuggling migrants by air—a minute part of the overall influx—with the suspects allegedly providing forged travel documents and residence permits, Ms. Perlebach said.
European security officials estimate the migrant-smuggling opportunity into Germany is a multibillion-dollar business. Longtime criminal networks, best-known for smuggling guns and drugs, have turned to human trafficking to take advantage of the cash bonanza created by record migration.
Most migrants are currently coming to Germany by land route via Greece, the Balkans, Croatia, Slovenia and Austria.
