Smuggling crime: Arrests in Munich and Garching
The federal police searched various apartments in Munich, Garching near Munich and Cologne on Wednesday morning. The action is directed against a suspected international gang of smugglers, as reported by the Federal Police Directorate in Rosenheim. Extensive evidence, including computers, mobile phones, storage media and bank documents, was seized. The federal police officers in Cologne recorded the actions mainly accused. Two 42-year-old men were also arrested in Munich and Garching. A judge ordered pre-trial detention.
Smugglers had already been noticed in autumn 2020
According to the information available, the Bangladeshi smugglers’ organization had been looking for people in Romania who were willing to smuggle them and organized their transport to Germany. After the people had been dropped off in the German border area, they are said to have ensured their onward journey to neighboring countries.
The starting point of the investigations by the Rosenheim federal police were smuggling trips, which were prevented in autumn 2020 during border controls on the German-Austrian border. According to the Federal Police, it is not possible for the organization to be assigned further lock trips.
Investigations based on the “Traunstein model”
The search officer of the public prosecutor’s office in Traunstein. There has been a special department for cross-border crime there since 2018. The so-called “Traunstein model” has now caught on – there are now similar special departments in all public prosecutor’s offices in Bavaria near the border.