IPOH: The Perak Immigration Department has crippled a human-trafficking syndicate which has been smuggling Indian nationals into Europe for the last 10 years with the arrest of three masterminds comprising a local family of three – a man, his wife and their son.
Its director Kamalludin Ismail said in the four-day operations which began on Monday, three police personnel – a sergeant and two constables aged between 22 and 57– were also detained together with 45 Indian migrants.
“The modus operandi would be the Indian nationals would be brought in by a syndicate which would contact the husband-and-wife team who would look for civilians to take them across the Malaysia-Thailand border before sending them to Europe,” Kamalludin said in a press conference held at the Home Ministry Complex here late last night.
He added that the role of the police personnel would be to arrange for the transportation and drive the Indians nationals across the border.
Commenting further, Kamalludin said each of the Indian nationals would have to pay up to RM5,000 to be smuggled into Thailand before heading on to Europe.
He said in the operations, the Immigration Department seized cash amounting to RM13,750, several handphones, two motorcycles and three cars, and all the detainees were being investigated under various Immigration Acts including the Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants Act 2007.
He added that the operations were carried out with the cooperation of the Royal Malaysia Police and the Malaysian Border Security Agency. — Bernama
