Three illegal border-crossing routes have been shut down in Zakarpattia

Officers from the Mukachevo Border Guard Detachment, working closely with the National Police, the Security Service of Ukraine, and the prosecutor’s office, successfully uncovered and dismantled three separate smuggling rings involved in illegally transporting people across the state border. The organizers of these schemes attempted to provide their “clients” with illegal transit to European Union countries through border sections with Hungary and Romania. 

The first successful operation took place in the Rakhiv district, where border guards from the “Mukachevo Type C” and “Dilove” units stopped a minibus driven by two residents of the Kyiv region. 

The smugglers were attempting to transport three passengers—residents of Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, and Donetsk regions—to Romania. The Kyiv residents had priced their services at $24,000 for the entire group. The route ran across the Tisa River, and during a search of the luggage compartment, operatives discovered life jackets, sets of professional mountaineering equipment, and special metal cutters, which the men planned to use to cut through the border barrier fence.

A second smuggling route was shut down in the Vynogradiv district, where officers from the operational-investigative department stopped a luxury Tesla electric vehicle for inspection. Inside the car were two local residents of Transcarpathia and their passenger—a 27-year-old citizen of the Russian Federation. As it turned out, the foreigner was in Ukraine illegally, carrying only an expired foreign passport that had expired back in 2020. For a sum of $15,000, the Transcarpathian traffickers promised the Russian man unimpeded passage to Romania via the "green route," bypassing official border crossings.

A third illegal migration scheme was disrupted in the Berehove district in cooperation with the local police department, the SBU, and the Berehove District Prosecutor’s Office. The illegal business was run by a 30-year-old resident of the Zakarpattia region, who provided men of draft age with temporary shelter in the border zone and then personally escorted them to the demarcation line. The organizer was caught red-handed while receiving a payment of 17,000 euros from two clients. Based on all the facts uncovered, border guards sent official reports to the police; those involved face lengthy prison terms and confiscation of property.

This was reported by the State Border Guard Service.

In May, border guards detained approximately 1,100 state border violators.

Border guards thwarted an attempt to illegally cross into Moldova.