Operation Pigeon results in 24 smugglers detained, including over 20 individuals detained in simultaneous operations on 22nd of April in Romania
More than 100 illegal migrants discovered since January at Romania-Hungary border
BUCHAREST, April 23rd – At a joint press conference at the SECI Center, authorities announced that starting in the second half of 2007, officers from the General Directorate for Combating Organized Crime (Romanian Police) and prosecutors from the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism – Romanian Prosecutor Office carried out complex investigations regarding two networks of migrant smugglers, which were using the Republic of Moldova – Ukraine – Romania – Hungary – Italy route.
The Moldavian members of the network crossed the Moldavian and Ukrainian migrants over Romanian border, legally. In Romania, they were accommodated and they were given either genuine Romanian identity papers, which belonged to persons that looked similar to the migrants, or counterfeited documents. Then, they were transported to Hungary, either by presenting the above mentioned documents or by hiding the migrants in cargo vehicles. Another method used involved transporting Moldavian migrants to Ukraine and Hungary, using the same type of documents. The smugglers charged each migrant a fee ranging between 2000 and 4000 euros.
“So far the members of the two organized networks, who set up a pyramid structure type of organized crime group, organized transportation operations for 15 groups of migrants, in a total number of 108 persons, who were discovered by Romanian and Hungarian police units”, Toma Rus, deputy director of the General Directorate for Combating Organized Crime (Romanian Police) affirmed.
On Tuesday, the 22nd of April, the Romanian police organized simultaneous operations in the Northern part of the country and identified over 20 smugglers. The Hungarian police officers have already detained 4 smugglers. Investigations are under development in these two countries, as well as in Italy.
Because of the transnational aspects, working groups meetings and intelligence exchanges between Romanian, Hungarian and Italian law enforcement agencies have been organized through the SECI Center.
“Operation Pigeon is a successful example of cooperation among the SECI Center member states, and observer countries. This is one of the main cases solved based on information exchange. Information exchange is increasing every year within SECI Center. In 2006 we had 6000 information exchanges, last year 7600”, Mitja Močnik, the director of SECI Center declared.
The Romanian chief prosecutor of the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism highlighted the elements that made this case special: the number of individuals involved; the multinational character of the group; the large number of smuggled persons and the way the group was organized - the hierarchy and the logistical aspects. “It is the biggest and best done case so far. It wouldn’t have been possible without exceptional domestic and international cooperation. Once Romania joined the European Union, it became the Eastern border of EU, and so the combating of migrant smuggling was intensified. It became one of the top priorities for Romanian agencies”, Codrut Olaru declared.
Gabriel Sotirescu, SECI Center deputy director supported the idea: “Trafficking in human beings and migrant smuggling are priorities for the SECI Center because the region is marked by this phenomenon, being a source region for this sort of crime, a transit region and sometimes even a destination point for some of the member countries. Hence, the importance of cooperation: it is not possible anymore to solve such a case without cooperation. This operation belongs to the member states. The merit goes to prosecutor offices and police units from Romania and Hungary which solved the case with the help of SECI Center.”
Andrei Nichitoi, the chief of Combating Organized Crime Unit, Suceava, Romania, who coordinated the investigations, highlighted the importance of cooperation.
The same idea was supported by Zoltan Borros, Chief of the Counter Illegal Migration Division of the Hungarian National Bureau of Investigation “For us the team work is very important, as Hungary recently became part of the Schengen Treaty. We have now more commitments, as we face a complicated problem: the Schengen external border is also European Union internal border. We can solve this by assuring the common border, Romania-Hungary, and by developing intensified trans-border cooperation on criminal case.”
The SECI Regional Center for Combating Trans-border Crime, headquartered in Bucharest, Romania, was launched in 2000, and is a unique operational organization in which police and customs liaison officers from 12 member states (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Moldova, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia and Turkey) work together in direct cooperation, coordinate joint investigations and facilitate information exchange.
Besides the member countries, there are 21 observers, countries and organizations: Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Canada, EUBAM, France, Georgia, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Slovakia, Ukraine, UNDP Romania, the United Kingdom, UNMIK, and the United States of America.
Italy and the United States maintain permanent representation at the SECI Center, and Interpol and the World Customs Organization are permanent (non-resident) advisors to the SECI Center.
