Vitebsk reveals details about an international criminal group smuggling illegal immigrants into the EU
In Vitebsk, details have been revealed about an international criminal group that was smuggling illegal migrants into EU countries. New facts were presented today at a briefing by the head of the 7th department for the Vitebsk region of the Ministry of Internal Affairs' Main Directorate for Combating Organized Crime and Corruption, Sergey Kolontayev, as reported by a BELTA correspondent.
In March 2013, the department for the Vitebsk region of the Main Directorate for Combating Organized Crime and Corruption of the Ministry of Internal Affairs received operational information about an international criminal group involved in organizing the illegal export of citizens from Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, and other states with increased terrorist activity from the Russian Federation through the territory of Belarus to the European Union countries. The criminal group included citizens of Russia, Belarus, and Lithuania.
As a result of a joint operation by employees of the department for combating organized crime and corruption for the Vitebsk region of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus, the State Border Guard Service under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Lithuania, and the Polotsk Border Detachment, on April 22, a resident of the Moscow region (a citizen of Belarus born in 1991) and his 24-year-old accomplice (a resident of the Vitebsk region) were detained at a gas station located in the village of Khomyakovo, Gorodok district. They had organized the illegal entry of six citizens of Vietnam and two citizens of Afghanistan from Russia into Belarus and planned to smuggle the illegal migrants further into Lithuania on the same day through the section of the Belarusian-Lithuanian border in the Braslav district.
On April 23, a criminal case was initiated against the detainees by the Investigative Committee Department for the Vitebsk region under Part 2 of Article 371-1 of the Criminal Code, the sanction of which provides for imprisonment for a term of three to seven years with confiscation of property. An arrest has been placed on the vehicles used to transport the illegal migrants.
A resident of the Moscow region paid a Belarusian accomplice $800 for each illegal migrant transported to Lithuania.
Currently, the Department for Combating Organized Crime and Corruption and the Investigative Committee for the Vitebsk region, in cooperation with the State Border Guard Service under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Lithuania and the operational activities service of the Polotsk Border Detachment, are conducting the necessary operational-search and investigative actions to establish the involvement of the detainees in other cases of illegal migrant trafficking to EU countries, as well as to identify all members of the criminal group.
"There is information that the detainees, as well as their accomplices in Lithuania and Russia, have been bringing groups of illegal migrants into Belarus since the beginning of 2013. Two of these groups, consisting of 12 people (10 citizens of Vietnam, 2 from Afghanistan), were detained in Lithuania," noted Sergey Kolontaev. According to him, new criminal cases are expected to be initiated against other members of the international criminal group, including those located outside of Belarus.