Algerian authorities announced the arrest of an “international network” that smuggled Syrian refugees and migrants to Europe via Algeria.
The An-Nahar Online website said that Algeria’s Organized Crime Center Authority had arrested nine Syrians and six Algerians and were brought before the Algerian judiciary.
The five-month investigation allowed Algerian police to monitor the network that carried migrants from Syria and Lebanon to Benghazi Airport in Libya and then overland to Ghadames, Libya, before smuggling migrants across the border into Algeria. Debdab city, winding desert roads.
According to “An-Nahar Online,” members of the network were then trying to transport the immigrants to the city of Oran in western Algeria, a meeting place for people wishing to immigrate illegally to Europe.
The network is asking migrants to pay “exorbitant” cash to get to Europe.
Algerian authorities confiscated more than 11,000 dollars and 8,920 euros, as well as Syrian and Lebanese pounds of pounds held by the detainees.
