The police have busted a huge human trafficking criminal organization

Dávid Pámer’s writing on Mandiner

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The Hungarian authorities managed to identify and dismantle a well-organized human trafficking network, it was revealed at today’s joint press conference of the police and the Veszprém County Prosecutor General’s Office.

Colonel Zoltán Boross, head of the International Crimes Department of the National Investigation Agency (NNI), said in the opening remarks that illegal migration is an increasingly important source of danger for Hungary. Since 2020, the number of illegal migrants apprehended in our country has been continuously increasing, and parallel to them, human traffickers are also appearing in increasing numbers. Human traffickers are usually organized on the basis of nationality and divide the territories between them exactly to the meter. The organizers monitor the borders and border guards very carefully, and shape their operations based on the information obtained in this way. The colonel said: there is a sharp fight between the different gangs, who are acting aggressively towards each other and the police. In addition, drug and arms trafficking goes hand in hand with human trafficking, added Zoltán Boross.

It was also said at the press conference that, while the first groups to help illegal migrants with their transport to Western Europe were spontaneously organized after the emergence of migration, by now serious international level criminal organizations have been built up.

They tracked down an international criminal organization

The National Investigation Agency (NNI) managed to completely map such a criminal gang. Regarding the history of the case, Lt. Col. Gábor Balog, head of the NNI’s Illegal Migration Department, said that the migrant groups were also recorded by wildlife cameras in the southern border section. Analyzing them, the investigators came into sight of several farm buildings on the outskirts of Ruzsa and Ásotthalom, which served as resting places for illegal migrants, and an organized criminal group helping them began to take shape.

Later, it was possible to identify the man from Ásotthalm who supplied the illegal migrants with water and food, and it was he who provided space on his farm for the conversion of individual vehicles. They created hiding places in the cars. There was a vehicle disguised as a construction debris truck with a cavity created under its loading surface and construction debris placed there. And the illegal migrants hid under it, in the hiding place.

They conspired well

The drivers were usually men in disadvantaged social situations or homeless. In terms of their citizenship, they are Hungarian, Estonian, Polish and Romanian. They were usually accommodated in a Budapest hostel or rented apartment before their transport task. Then they received the coordinates in chat messages. They usually had to pick up the car in the parking lot of a department store in Soroksári or Szigetszentmiklós, in an open state, with an ignition key, gas money inside and a work phone, prepared to transport migrants, said the lieutenant colonel, adding that the drivers mostly did not meet the organizers, if they did, then the organizer was a real they did not know his identity, he introduced himself to them under a pseudonym. They kept in touch exclusively via the internet and phone, usually in Romanian, with the help of Google translator. The money received for the transport was not given to them by the organizers, but by the intermediaries.

They also targeted the Libyan leader of the criminal organization

The middle-level leader of the criminal organization was a 46-year-old Romanian man living in Szigetszentmiklós. His task was to recruit drivers and provide them with vehicles for transportation. He played the role of mediator between the main organizer and other members of the band, but the Romanian man was arrested in Gyöngyös two years ago. During the raid, he threw the mobile phone he was using from the sixth floor, but the investigators managed to find it and extract data from it that proved the suspect’s participation and role in the criminal organization. The main organizer of the human trafficking network was a 55-year-old Libyan man who was already known under a pseudonym in several countries, but the National Investigation Agency managed to identify him and capture him in Budapest on September 22, 2021.

Long years in prison await the criminal gang

The Arab man was in contact with the illegal migrants in Serbia, and he was constantly coordinating with them. He asked them for 3,500-4,500 euros per person for delivery to the destination country. When the delivery was made, he asked the transporters for a video of the migrants supporting him and thanking him for it. He coordinated and supervised the entire human trafficking process. Through his confidant, he recruited the drivers, and he determined in detail the conversion of transport vehicles. To illustrate this, he even made a model out of a paper box, which he videotaped and then sent to his people. When he was arrested, he was found with three Romanian and Bulgarian documents issued in different names, each of which contained his photo. In addition, nineteen mobile phones and dozens of SIM cards were confiscated from him, it was said at the press conference.

During the investigation, the authorities finally managed to identify and capture fourteen members of the criminal organization. The investigation found that the group operated in a coordinated, hierarchical and conspiratorial manner. The criminal gang is responsible for transporting more than six hundred illegal migrants to Western Europe. The Veszprém County Prosecutor’s Office has already filed charges in their case. The act of committing the crime charged against them can be punished with imprisonment of up to several years.

Opening image: police.hu