A smuggling ring was uncovered at the border with Slovakia
Operatives from the Chop Border Guard Detachment, in collaboration with the National Police, dismantled an illegal migration network on Ukraine’s western border. According to the investigation, the smugglers used counterfeit international police insignia and charged up to $26,500 for their services.
The criminals charged their “clients” $26,500 for their services.
The criminal group consisted of four people: three residents of Zakarpattia and one resident of the Kyiv region. The perpetrators operated according to clearly defined roles:
- The organizer searched online for people willing to flee the country and coordinated the actions of the accomplices;
- The accomplices met the men, arranged their temporary accommodation in local hotels, and later drove them to the border;
- The guides were responsible for the actual crossing through the forests and mountains near the village of Velyky Berezny.
The guide, along with two fugitives from the Kyiv region, was caught red-handed on the outskirts of the village of Zavosyno, just one kilometer from the state border.
Following the initial arrest, law enforcement officers conducted a series of urgent searches. As a result, three additional participants in the scheme were apprehended.
During the investigation, the following items were seized from the suspects: vehicles, mobile phones, and flash drives; significant amounts of cash; bank cards and rough notes; as well as camouflage clothing.
One of the detained smugglers attempted to pose as a law enforcement officer—to conceal his criminal activities, he used forged documents and metal badges of an “international police” officer.
All four suspects have been officially charged. The court has already imposed preventive measures on them: detention with the possibility of bail, as well as round-the-clock house arrest. The investigation is ongoing.
This was reported by the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine.
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