BERLIN (AP) — German police conducted a major raid Wednesday against a group of suspected people smugglers, the German news agency dpa reported.
Around 400 officers, including the federal police and special units of GSG 9, searched more than 20 apartments and offices, mostly in Berlin but also in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt.
Five people were arrested, four of them in Berlin and one in Halle, another 12 suspects are under investigation, reports dpa.
The group is said to have brought at least 90 people, mostly from Turkey and Iraq, to Germany, each paying several thousand euros.
They were flown from Istanbul to Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia. From there, they continued their trip to Germany by car along the so-called Balkan route. Some of them were found in apartments that were searched on Wednesday.
According to the police, the suspects mostly have Turkish or German citizenship.
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