After almost a year of investigations, the federal police smashed up a smuggling ring during a major raid in Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria and arrested one of the two suspected masterminds. A total of 18 apartments and 2 restaurants were searched on Wednesday, 15 people are accused, as the Lörrach public prosecutor announced.
An arrested 41-year-old Turk and a 32-year-old German are accused of procuring forged foreign papers commercially and in gangs and of bringing foreigners to Germany illegally. Four other men from Turkey are said to have helped the duo, and another nine of their compatriots are said to have tried to obtain a German residence permit with the forged documents. The raid took place in Weil am Rhein and Lörrach, Eimeldingen, Bad Säckingen, Todtnau, Offenburg, Karlsfeld and Munich.
According to the investigators, the men had been smuggled overland from Italy via Austria or Switzerland to Germany. In Italy or after entering Germany, they received fake Italian permanent residence permits. “With this paper, people can pretend freedom of movement towards the German authorities,” said a spokesman for the public prosecutor’s office. For a work permit, German authorities then unknowingly issued a real German residence permit. “Thus, the stay of the smuggled persons in Germany was made legal,” it said.
The caught customers of the ring must reckon with the deportation. The German main suspect is at large.