LOC18:22
15:22 GMT
BRUSSELS, Nov 12 (KUNA) -- Nine members of a network (five in Spain and four in France) have been arrested for smuggling more than 500 migrants by plane from Palestine to Northern Europe through Spain and France, the European Union's police agency, Europol, said on Monday.
The network followed a very well organized modus operandi by using particular routes, including via Middle-Eastern countries, East Africa and South America in order to reach Spain, said Europol.
The migrants were accommodated in Madrid's area during the time necessary to organize the continuation of their trip and the illegal border crossing to France and onwards by car.
They were charged between 5,000 (USD 5,664) and 8,000 euro (USD 9,000) for the facilitation, which resulted in the smugglers making some 9 million euro (USD 10 million) profit.
Europol said its supported this investigation by providing operational analysis and deploying officers to France and Spain during the action days .(end)
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