Spain’s National Police have dismantled a transnational criminal organisation dedicated to the trafficking of Cuban migrants. 36 people were arrested in several Spanish provinces for their alleged involvement in the plot.
The operation, carried out in collaboration with Europol and Eurojust, involved a network that had a presence in Spain, Serbia, North Macedonia and Greece. Police believe that the gang would have facilitated the clandestine entry into Spain of 67 people from Cuba.
The criminal organisation transported citizens from Cuba to Serbia by plane and from there they transported them by car to Greece, crossing North Macedonia. Once in Greece, the migrants flew to Spain using false IDs or documentation stolen from Spanish citizens.
Police said in a statement that each migrant paid around €10,000 to the criminal network in order to be able to enter Spain.
The 36 arrests include four alleged leaders of the organisation, arrested in Alicante and Malaga and who are already in provisional custody. Two of them were engaged in recruiting migrants, obtaining tickets and providing invitation letters so they could enter Serbia. The other two organised the land route and provided documentation to reach Spain.
The investigation began in January 2023 when the German authorities contacted the Spanish National Police to inform them that they had arrested a Cuban citizen travelling from Belgrade to Madrid at one of their airports, who was carrying a stolen Spanish ID card.
The investigative team uncovered a specialised criminal group that recruited Cuban citizens in their country of origin through a website that pretended to be a legal travel agency, and transported them to Belgrade, usually stopping at the German airport in Frankfurt, and then to Greece.
The road transfers were carried out by ‘pirate drivers’ who facilitated secret border crossings, and in which the lives of the migrants were often put in danger as they were forced to get into the trunks of vehicles travelling at high speed.
The criminal organisation had bank accounts in Belgium intended for the receipt of money and which were opened using false documentation.
In the operation, three house searches were carried out in Alicante and Malaga, in which more than 7,000 euros in cash, abundant computer equipment and documentation relevant to the investigation were seized.
🚩Desarticulada una organización criminal trasnacional dedicada al tráfico de migrantes de nacionalidad cubana y 36 detenidos con la colaboración de @Europol y @Eurojust
🚩Los migrantes viajaban desde #Cuba hasta #Serbia y desde allí eran trasladados por #Grecia, donde… pic.twitter.com/pp2JrIZ62a
— Policía Nacional (@policia) December 7, 2024
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