A criminal migrant smuggling gang was disbanded in a joint operation by the Spanish, German police and Europol.
The international gang brought people from Syria to Spain, Germany and Norway on a complicated route involving travel by plane, in boats, and overland. The migrants had to pay the equivalent of about €20,000 per person for the entire journey, according to the Spanish police.
The organization had contacts with local criminal groups in each country along the migration route and had collected a total of about €2.5 million ($2.7 million).
Nineteen people have been arrested. Cash, five vehicles, mobile phones, electronic systems and documents were seized during house searches in several Spanish cities, the statement said on Sunday evening.
The migrants had traveled from Syria to Lebanon, from whose capital Beirut they were first taken by plane to the Egyptian capital Cairo, the police said. From there, they continued by land through Libya and Tunisia to Algeria. They were then taken in small boats from the Algerian coasts across the Mediterranean to Spain, hidden in secret shelters in Madrid, Cuenca and Toledo.
In Spain, they were provided with forged papers in order to either stay there or travel to Germany or Norway.
