A criminal organization of trafficking foreigners through the Athens International Airport “El.Venizelos” to countries of the European Union was dismantled by the Sub-Directorate for Combating Organized Crime and Human Trafficking.

During the operation, which took place on Monday, July 8, five foreigners members of the gang (aged 31, 36, 38, 39 and 60) were arrested and a case file was formed against them for setting up and joining a criminal organization, forgery, possession of third-party documents and violation of the Immigration Code.

The case file includes five more foreigners who supported the action of the criminal organization, while during the operation, a 33-year-old foreigner who was wanted with a European arrest warrant, was identified and arrested by German authorities as a trafficker of illegal immigrants.

According to the ELAS, the 39-year-old head of the organization set up a legitimate company that was in the business of selling food and then rented space where it would ostensibly serve as the headquarters of the business. However, he converted this space into a training – document forgery workshop, equipping it with the necessary raw materials, after having previously obtained a large quantity of genuine travel documents of third persons from various countries, which they mainly employ as stolen or lost.

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

With regard to the money transactions of foreigners in transit with the ring, the criminal organization offered the enticing to customers “payment route”, without traces, both for their protection and to ensure the release of the amount they paid, once they had completed their passage to the country of their choice.

The sums of money paid ranged from EUR 3,000 to EUR 15,000.

The prevention of five cases of trafficking of foreigners by the criminal network, by the police officers of the Athens Airport Police Department, played an important role in revealing their modus operandi.

As a result of the searches at their home-lab and their homes, the following were seized:

– A number of passports, identity cards, residence permits and permits of third persons of various countries,

– Equipment suitable for drawing up and falsifying the documents,

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

– Numerous bank cards,

– A number of money transaction clippings and documents, as well as notebooks with relevant data; and

– The organisation’s “company” car.

The arrested persons were taken to the prosecutor of the Athens Prosecutor’s Office and were brought before an investigator.

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