A total of 38 people have been arrested in France, Romania and Moldova for their alleged involvement in widespread trafficking in immigrant workers, the European police agency Europol and the European judicial cooperation unit Eurojust announced on Thursday.
According to the two organizations, the arrests took place after suspicions by the French authorities as to possible “
trafficking in human beings
”, “
illegal employment
”, “
production of false identity papers
” and “
money laundering
”.
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The arrests were carried out during a
joint
“
day of action
” and are the result of a joint investigation by French, Romanian and Moldovan police forces, supported by Europol, the two agencies said in their press releases.
“
The criminal network smuggled and registered Moldovan workers in France using false documents, while keeping their real passports as a guarantee,
” Europol said.
"60 euros per day"
"
In total, 44 locations were searched - 17 in France, 14 in Romania, 20 in Moldova - and 15 luxury cars as well as 100,000 euros in cash were seized
", specifies, for its part, Eurojust, adding that "
11 bank accounts were frozen.
According to Europol, the criminal network provided illegal migrants with counterfeit Romanian identity cards and driving licenses.
Most of the victims have a "
low level of education
" and were therefore "
more vulnerable
" to their exploitation by this criminal network, added Europol.
“
They worked 55 hours a week for 60 euros a day.
"Large companies in the construction and renovation sector are also involved in this"
criminal system
", said the European police agency, describing the activity of the network as"
extremely lucrative
", with profits estimated at nearly 14 million euros.
"
The suspects laundered the criminal assets through eight screening companies
," added Europol, "
most of them
" being based in France.
