More than twenty clandestine crossings would have been organized between Spain and France. The Spanish National Police announced on Tuesday August 18 the dismantling of a network of smugglers which transported migrants from Alicante to France, crossing the border via La Jonquera and Le Perthus reports Actu.fr.
The affair began thanks to information transmitted by the French authorities. These had spotted the repeated crossings at the border of a vehicle associated with the main suspect. The investigations then made it possible to trace his movements and reveal the functioning of the network. Between May and June, the man would have made at least seven round trips between Alicante and France, systematically taking the same route. He was finally arrested at the border while transporting irregular migrants. According to the Spanish police, this arrest allowed “rapid and coordinated action between the authorities of the two countries”.
A search carried out at his home in Alicante led to the seizure of 3,190 euros in cash, personal documents and documents linked to several vehicles, as well as advertising cards offering taxi services and bearing the telephone number used by the suspect. The police also found the keys to another vehicle belonging to him. The investigation made it possible to identify three alleged members of the network, two of whom were placed in pre-trial detention.
According to Spanish authorities, smugglers charged 200 euros per person and generally transported five to six migrants on each trip. In total, the organization is suspected of having carried out more than 20 clandestine transfers from Alicante to France and of having collected nearly 100,000 euros. Investigators are now analyzing four bank accounts belonging to the suspects in order to determine more precisely the scale of the sums generated by the network.
