It is a titanic network that the authorities hope to have dismantled. 26 people were arrested and 11 million euros seized in the dismantling of a smugglers' network, as part of a vast investigation into a criminal organization smuggling Indo-Pakistani migrants and money laundering, the police said this Thursday at the borders (PAF) of Roissy.
These interconnected networks of smugglers, who billed their services between 15,000 and 26,000 euros per head, are suspected of having illegally brought several thousand people from India, Sri Lanka and Nepal into France since September 2021.
“Smugglers facilitated the journey of migrants to the European Union via Dubai or African states, while providing them with tourist, work or medical visas obtained illegally,” explains Julien Gentile, director of PAF Roissy.
From March to November 2024, 26 men were arrested in France, accused of belonging to different levels of the criminal organization, from smugglers to launderers to secret financial brokers. “This is the exceptional nature of this affair,” says Julien Gentile.
These networks generated several billion euros in illegal profits, the authorities estimated.
To reinject these enormous sums into the legal circuit, laundering networks have been structured around construction companies, gold trafficking and the hawala system (informal transfers of money via intermediaries, particularly widespread in the sub-region). Indian continent). Properties, luxury cars, jewelry, gold, machines… The total assets seized amount to 11 million euros.
Of the 26 men arrested, 15 were placed in pre-trial detention, seven under judicial supervision and four others, recently arrested, were presented Thursday evening to the investigating judge. There remains the head of the network, located in Dubai and whose extradition request has not yet had a favorable outcome, according to the PAF.
The investigation was carried out by the branch of the Office for Combating Smuggling of Migrants (Oltim) at Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport.
