South of Toulouse. 500 euros to get illegal immigrants across the border: eight smugglers imprisoned
Through Laurent Derne
Published on
For several months the border police (PAF) of Toulouse carries out and coordinates, under the authority of Saint-Gaudens parquet, fixed and mobile controls over the entire border area. Its objective: to detect, with the gendarmerie and customs, all migratory flux.
The Toulouse PAF intensifies its controls
In this context, a slight increase in the number of smugglers arrested was detected during the summer of 2021, in particular from the province of Lleida (Spain). This led the PAF to intensify its controls, as part of requisitions issued by the Saint-Gaudens prosecutor’s office. The latter also insists on “his intention to provide very firm and rapid penal response in the event of arrests of new smugglers ”.
According to the Haute-Garonne prefecture, the month of September 2021 was marked by “many operations” leading to arrests of eight Algerian smugglers (holders of Spanish residence permits).
The latter tried singly or on several occasions to illegally enter France around thirty migrants, mostly of Algerian nationality, recently landed on the Spanish coast.
Between 200 and 500 euros per passage
Intercepted migrants were not allowed to enter the territory and readmitted to Spain. The smugglers, for their part, were placed in custody by PAF and their vehicles seized.
The investigations carried out in flagrante delicto have made it possible to attribute to each accused numerous other passages on various border points. The prices varying from 200 to 500 euros per passenger for a trip made between Lérida and Toulouse Matabiau SNCF station.
4 to 12 months in prison
The smugglers were brought before the Saint-Gaudens prosecutor’s office and regularly sent back to immediate comparison. All were sentenced to terms of imprisonment, ranging from 4 months to 1 year firm, with immediate placement in detention at the Seysses remand center (31).
Inadmissibility and seized vehicles
All were subject to additional penalties of 2 or 3 years of ban from French territory. The seizures of seven and over 7,200 euros were also definitively confirmed vehicles at the hearing.
Many other control operations are already scheduled. “The device will be prepared or intensified as much as necessary”, indicates the prefecture.
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