Athens, April 7, (dpa/GNA) - Greek police broke up a migrant smuggling gang and detained five people suspected of acting as leaders in the group, according to the Athens police directorate on Thursday.
The police said the smugglers demanded €2,000 ($2,180) of each migrant they they brought from the border with Turkey in the east of the country to the Greek capital.
Police said the gang used more than 270 cars over the past few months in their activities.
Official figures show the Greek border guards prevented more than 260,000 irregular border crossings at the European Union’s external border near the Evros river along the border between Greece and Turkey last year.
Police detained around 1,500 suspected smugglers during that time.
Migrants and refugees fleeing war and poverty who are trying to reach the EU often first seek to cross from Turkey into Greece, with some seeking to avoid officially registering in order to apply for asylum elsewhere in Europe.
GNA