10 people arrested in massive raid in Germany targeting human smuggling group

German police arrested 10 people, including two lawyers after raiding a big human smuggling gang on Wednesday morning.

Over 1,000 police officers looked in many homes, stores, and offices in western and southern Germany. They arrested 10 people, including two lawyers.

German news agency dpa said that they are looking into 38 people who are believed to be in a gang, and 147 others who paid to be smuggled by them. The federal police in Sankt Augustin think that the two main suspects are lawyers from Cologne, aged 42 and 46. The suspects’ names were not provided because of German privacy laws.

The suspects are accused of breaking the law by using special German immigration rules for skilled workers to help around 350 Chinese people get residency permits, even though they don’t qualify. They allegedly took a lot of money in exchange for doing this.

The two main suspects used their law firms to find rich people from other countries, like China and Arab countries, to help them smuggle things. The police said people gave the law firms between 30,000 and 350,000 euros for illegal help with visas.

The lawyers and their helpers are said to have used the money to create fake companies, pay for fake homes, and pretend to pay wages. They also kept a lot of the money for themselves.

Fake residence permits were acquired from immigration offices in the towns of Kerpen and Solingen, as well as Rhine-Erft and Dueren counties. One of the ten people who were arrested is a city worker from Dueren. It is believed that he was paid to be part of the illegal activity.

Police searched places in different states in Germany and took away things they thought were important for their investigation. They also collected things to use as evidence.

“Authorities have gathered a lot of evidence and a significant amount of money, around 210,000 euros in cash, so far. ”

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser thanked the police and prosecutors for their big effort in stopping people from smuggling migrants across countries.

“We need to use strong investigative methods and crack down consistently on smuggling gangs,” the minister said. “We will keep strongly fighting against organized groups that smuggle migrants. ”

The investigation looked at North Rhine-Westphalia, where 10 people were arrested.