Five French and a Moroccan from Reims have been arrested and brought to justice for their involvement in migrant smuggling, AFP learned Friday from the prosecutor's office in Créteil (Val-de-Marne).
The defendants, aged between 21 and 26, will be tried on June 2 after the referral Friday by the criminal court of Créteil of their hearing of immediate appearance.
Dispersion by rail transport
They are accused of having participated, from May to October 2022, in an illegal immigration network that smuggled migrants of Tunisian, Algerian, Afghan and Syrian origin from Hungary to Austria in commercial vehicles preceded by an opening car. "Once in Austria, illegal migrants could disperse more easily in Europe, in particular by using rail transport," the prosecutor's office said.
Crossing the border between Hungary and Austria was only part of the activities of this network, which was structured around 12 members and supported around 250 migrants by managing the stages of their journey across Europe. Three of the individuals implicated in Créteil acted as organizers, two others were drivers and a sixth was responsible for transferring the proceeds of trafficking.
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The Office for Combating the Smuggling of Migrants (OLTIM) opened an investigation last October under the direction of the Créteil prosecutor's office, in cooperation with the Austrian and Hungarian judicial authorities. The six defendants were arrested and taken into custody earlier this week.
They are all prosecuted for facilitating the illegal entry, movement or stay of a foreigner in the Schengen area. Five of them are also charged with criminal conspiracy, an offence punishable by ten years in prison.
The Hungarian and Austrian police have previously convicted and imprisoned five other French nationals, including four from Val-de-Marne, who belonged to the same network.