In Transcarpathia, the criminals who were smuggling illegals to the EU were headed by a deputy

Law enforcement officers freed a family of four held hostages by criminals because they did not have enough money for a transfer to the EU

This was reported by the press service of the National Police.

Officers of the Regional Directorate of Strategic Investigation and the Uzhgorod Local Prosecutor’s Office detained the organizer and two members of the group and freed four hostages, including two minor children, who were illegally held in captivity. The leader of the group was a deputy of the village council.

While documenting the criminal activity of the group, law enforcement officers determined that the group consisted of three people. All of them are local residents, and the organizer was a deputy of one of the village councils. The members organized a channel for the smuggling of illegal migrants across the state border of Ukraine to the European Union countries, in particular to Slovakia and Hungary.

Thanks to the measures taken, the operatives found not only the group members, but also the family they were illegally holding.

Among their "hostages", there were two young children. The criminals were supposed to take the Tajik citizens to another country. As the persons didn’t have enough money for the transfer, they were taken to the basement by force. The criminals also took away their money – $ 7 thousand, documents, clothes and mobile phones.

One of the hostages managed to escape and appeal to the police for help. At the time of his appeal, a special operation to apprehend the members of the criminal group and free the people was already underway. Yesterday, December 11, operatives of the Directorate for Strategic Investigations in Transcarpathian region of the National Police together with prosecutors of the Uzhgorod Local Prosecutor’s Office and a special police force detained all the group members.

The organizer and members of the organized group have been notified of being suspected under Part 2 of Art. 187 (robbery) and Part 2 of Art. 146 (unlawful imprisonment) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. A pre-trial restraint in the form of detention will be imposed on the suspects.