14ymedio, Havana, 8 December 2024 – The Spanish National Police on Saturday dismantled a criminal network of 36 members, including ringleaders and coyotes, who illegally transported at least 67 Cubans to Europe with false documentation. The migrants paid up to 10,000 euros for the journey through several European countries, which in some cases included traveling hidden in trunks.
The smugglers operated in Serbia, North Macedonia, Greece and Spain, and recruited the Cubans through the website of an alleged travel agency – the name of which was not disclosed – said the European Police Office (Europol) and the European Union Agency for Criminal Judicial Cooperation (Eurojust).
The migrants were given tickets in Cuba to board flights to Belgrade (Serbia), “normally making a stopover at the airport in Frankfurt (Germany),” the investigation details. Thanks to a visa-free agreement between Serbia and the island, Cubans can travel to the Balkan country as tourists, although they must meet several requirements, such as having a letter of invitation and proving economic solvency.
From Belgrade, they were moved by land “to Greece, passing through North Macedonia, being housed during the journey in the houses of the criminal network”, according to data provided by the Spanish authorities.
The transportation was carried out by coyotes who facilitated the border crossings in a clandestine manner, and “in which on many occasions the lives of the migrants were endangered as it was carried out in the trunks of vehicles circulating at high speed,” stresses the National Police. Once in Greece, the organization gave the Cubans “fake or authentic Spanish documents of people with similar features” – a method known as look-alike – with which they traveled by air from Athens to Spain.
The police had been tracking the traffickers since last January when German authorities alerted about a Cuban traveler with a stolen identity document (DNI). The woman arrived from Belgrade and was bound for Madrid. The Prosecutor’s Office of the Audiencia Nacional opened an investigation and was able to confirm this modus operandi in at least 40 cases.
The Second Central Court of Instruction was in charge of the follow-up of the investigation and this Saturday the arrest of 36 people involved was announced. Among the ringleaders, three were arrested in Alicante and one in Malaga. The rest of the arrests took place in Alicante (7), Barcelona (6), Las Palmas (4), Santa Cruz de Tenerife (4), Guipúzcoa (2), Balearic Islands (2), Madrid (2), Cáceres (1), Segovia (1), Toledo (1), Vizcaya (1) and Zaragoza (1).
As part of the process, three house searches were carried out where the authorities found “7,550 euros in cash and abundant computer material and documentation relevant to the investigation,” which is still ongoing.
Translated by LAR
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