Nine people have been arrested following an investigation into people smuggling and human trafficking.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) have arrested nine people in the UK as it collaborated with international partners on INTERPOL’s largest-ever operation to target the issues. A 35-year-old man was arrested in Preston.
Officers from the NCA’s Joint International Crime Centre (JICC) National Extradition Unit made the arrests across Lancashire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire and Kent.
INTERPOL’s National Central Bureau in Manchester, housed and managed by the NCA, helped identify three suspects residing in the UK. 27 people, including 21 children, were intercepted in Tunisia attempting to travel to the UK.
A 32-year-old Syrian man, arrested in Nottingham and wanted by Romania, is accused of transporting migrants from Bulgaria to Romania, for onward travel to the Netherlands.
The other seven are wanted for people smuggling, human trafficking or modern slavery offences in France, Germany, Belgium and Romania. Extradition proceedings for all nine suspects are ongoing.
NCA Deputy Director of International Rick Jones, said: “This INTERPOL operation is a prime example of our commitment to working closely and effectively with international partners to tackle people smuggling and human trafficking. We utilised a range of our specialist capabilities to gather and disseminate intelligence to law enforcement agencies across the world, and to enable our officers to identify, locate and detain offenders wanted overseas.
“As a result, nine individuals wanted in connection to serious offences have been removed from our communities and extradition proceedings are ongoing to ensure they face justice.”
This took place during a week-long intensification of INTERPOL’s ‘Operation Liberterra II’ from September 29 to October 4 this year. In Glasgow, at the 92nd General Assembly, INTERPOL announced preliminary results of its global operation. Alongside the UK, a total of 116 countries and territories took part in the operation and 2,517 arrests were made worldwide.
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