LYON, France (AP) – Organized crime networks are making new connections as they jump into the lucrative business of smuggling migrants, the operations chief for Europe’s top law enforcement agency said Thursday.
Fighting them has become a major preoccupation for European investigators, said Wil van Gemert, Europol’s deputy director for operations.
“In trying to transport people from one place in southern Europe to the north of Europe … organized crime groups are linking to each other. Part of them are responsible for the first transfer into, let’s say, Germany, and then onwards to Sweden,” van Gemert told The Associated Press. He spoke on the sidelines of a joint conference with Interpol that gathered law enforcement representatives from 50 countries to discuss how to join forces against the smuggling networks.
“We have to agree who is doing what and when,” van Gemert said.
Advertising on social networks and web links, the networks promise safe passage to Austria, Germany, Sweden and Norway, said Gerald Tatzgern, head of Austria’s federal unit combatting human trafficking.