As of: January 23, 2024, 9:45 a.m
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A minor Syrian had to spend several hours in the trunk of a car.
Federal police found him lying there in his own vomit.
© Federal Police Rosenheim
Mittenwald/Murnau - The federal police are investigating two Ukrainians and a Romanian who are said to have smuggled several migrants from Syria and Turkey on Saturday, January 20th.
In one case in Mittenwald, the officers were able to end a car journey during which the people being transported had to endure obviously life-threatening conditions.
In the second case, the smugglers were dropped off in the Murnau area at night.
The suspected smuggler was caught around two hours after he left the Syrians to fend for themselves in sub-zero temperatures as part of a search operation that was launched immediately on the A8 near Neukirchen am Teisenberg (Berchtesgadener Land district).
Teenager in the trunk
Shortly after midnight, the federal police stopped a car with a French license plate in the Mittenwald area.
From the first look inside the car it was clear that the vehicle was overcrowded.
There were four people in the back seat of the VW Golf, which was approved for three people.
Because of the narrow space, they were unable to fasten their seat belts.
None of them could identify themselves.
According to their own information, it is a 39-year-old Turkish man and three young Syrians between the ages of 16 and 17.
The driver had a Ukrainian passport and a French residence permit.
His companion in the passenger seat had a Romanian passport with him.
In the trunk, the Garmisch-Partenkirchen officers found another minor lying in his own vomit.
The 15-year-old Syrian also had no papers with him.
He explained that he had to spend several hours in the trunk.
His attempts to contact the driver by knocking or shouting loudly to get him to stop because of the cold and nausea were unsuccessful.
According to the Federal Police's initial findings, there was hardly any air supply in the trunk.
In addition, with outside temperatures of minus eleven degrees, conditions were likely to have been like in a freezer.
The Ukrainian driver and the Romanian passenger were arrested on suspicion of smuggling foreigners under life-threatening conditions.
Investigators from the Rosenheim Federal Police Inspectorate assume that smuggling was organized.
The Munich district court accepted the public prosecutor's request and ordered the two suspected smugglers to be taken into custody.
They were taken to the Munich-Stadelheim correctional facility.
The smuggled minors could be entrusted to the care of the Garmisch-Partenkirchen youth welfare office.
The adult Turkish citizen was sent to a reception center for refugees in Munich.
Refugees simply dropped off in the Murnau area
In Murnau, four men asked for help in an inn on Saturday night.
The federal police officers from Garmisch-Partenkirchen who were notified discovered on site that they were Syrian migrants who, according to their own statements, had been dropped off in the Murnau area about an hour earlier by their smuggler.
The driver, who they did not know, suddenly drove off in his blue Skoda, registered in Slovakia, despite the freezing cold.
The federal police immediately began a search for the car.
Around an hour later, investigators from the Freilassing Federal Police Station recognized a car on the A8 that matched the description.
The 34-year-old driver, who was traveling towards Austria without any other companions, initially appeared to be clueless.
He was able to identify himself with his Ukrainian passport and a Polish residence permit.
When searching the car, the officers found a cell phone from which, among other things, videos of four people could be accessed.
As it quickly became clear, these were apparently exactly the four migrants who had been dropped off near Murnau a good two hours earlier.
The Ukrainian was arrested on suspicion of smuggling foreigners and handed over to the federal police in Rosenheim.
The public prosecutor's office arranged for him to be brought before the judge.
On his orders, the man was taken into custody and taken to the Munich-Stadelheim prison.
The smuggled Syrians aged 18, 27, 29 and 30 were forwarded to a reception center for refugees after the police measures were completed.