Law enforcement agencies across Europe have intensified their efforts to dismantle migrant smuggling networks as part of a coordinated whole-route approach addressing every stage of the criminal business model. A joint operation involving agencies from Belgium, France, and the United Kingdom, supported by Europol and Eurojust, led to the dismantling of a Vietnamese criminal network smuggling migrants. The smugglers transported migrants to the UK using trucks departing from northern French ports and, to a lesser extent, small boats. During searches in France, over 40 illegal migrants were discovered. The day of action resulted in 19 arrests, including 16 in France and three in the UK. One apartment, 10 vehicles, โฌ60,000, and ยฃ2,500 in cash were seized, along with documents, mobile phones, and other electronic devices. A bank account containing โฌ75,000 was frozen. The investigation revealed that migrants paid up to โฌ50,000 to travel from Vietnam to the UK. The network organized over 200 transports from France to the UK, moving more than 1,000 migrants with an estimated turnover of โฌ50 million. Financial investigations determined that approximately โฌ1.6 million was transferred from the UK to Vietnam. The main organizer of the network is believed to be an unidentified woman based in Vietnam.
Society
Criminal group smuggling migrants from Vietnam busted, unidentified woman behind it all.
Europol has carried out an operation targeting criminal networks smuggling migrants from Vietnam into the European Union and the United Kingdom.

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