Pakistani and Serb Earn Half a Million Euros from Refugees

A criminal group of 12 Serbs, led by a Pakistani citizen, smuggled about 400 migrants across our borders in six months, reports the Patria News Agency.

From this lucrative "business," as "Večernje novosti" unofficially learns, they earned as much as half a million euros. All were arrested at the end of September, and a large part of the money was found and confiscated.

The extensive operation by the Service for Combating Organized Crime was prepared for several months and was finally carried out in the areas of Belgrade and Kragujevac.

- Hungarian and Austrian police made a significant contribution. According to operational findings, the smugglers smuggled about 400 migrants from April to September. Among them were predominantly Syrians, Somalis, and Iraqis. They exploited their misery and charged them 1,200 euros per person for the transfer from Belgrade to Hungary or Austria. They contacted the migrants in reception centers in Bogovađa and Belgrade, said a source from the Ministry of Internal Affairs to "Večernje novosti".

During the search of apartments and other facilities used by the members of this criminal group, a large amount of money earned from smuggling migrants was also found.

In addition to the fight against human trafficking, the Service for Combating Organized Crime dismantled as many as 14 organized criminal groups in the first ten months of this year. The targets included counterfeiters, car thieves, drug dealers...
In these operations, large quantities of illegal goods were seized, with an estimated value of several million euros. This is a significant progress considering that in the whole of 2014, only 10 groups were busted.

- The arrest of three individuals involved in counterfeiting money is particularly interesting. They were found with equipment for preparing to print 100-dollar bills, 32,600 high-quality counterfeit dollars, as well as a large number of unfinished banknotes. Their printing equipment, offset machines, cutters, etc., were also confiscated. How they acquired all of this and how they managed to organize themselves is truly unbelievable," says the source for "Večernje novosti".

A similar operation was carried out by an eleven-member criminal group, which was also recently arrested. They were counterfeiting payment cards, checks, and passports.

- They were found with modern equipment, printers for applying to payment cards, machines for printing payment cards, and machines for printing identity documents, explains the newspaper's source.

In addition to all this, the dismantling of an international group involved in car smuggling perhaps attracted the most public attention.

A large amount of forged documentation was seized at that time, and two workshops for re-stamping chassis numbers and two workshops for forging documents were uncovered. As many as 20 facilities were inspected in the territories of Sremska Kamenica, Subotica, Novi Sad, and Šid. This was one of the most extensive police operations in recent years.