Over
1,000 arrested in Europe crackdown on organized crime – Europol
Have
the much-anticipated mass arrests finally begun? It sure seems that way! -LW
Published time:
September 24, 2014 12:39
Edited time: September 24, 2014 13:33
Edited time: September 24, 2014 13:33
Operation
Archimedes, lasting from September15 to 23, “was the single largest coordinated assault
an organized crime in Europe,” the chief of the European police organization, Rob
Wainwright, told reporters on Wednesday.European police have arrested more than
1,000 suspects in an unprecedented nine-day swoop on organized crime. At least
30 Romanian children have been saved from child traffickers and over 2,000kg of
drugs have been seized.
Organized
crime groups and their infrastructures was the target of the operation that
involved Eurojust, Frontex and Interpol.
INFOGRAPHIC #OpArchimedes:
fighting #crime together
in 34 countries and hundreds of locations #Europolpic.twitter.com/7En2TTiZfF
— Europol (@Europol_EU) September 24, 2014
Australia,
Norway, Serbia, Switzerland, the USA and Colombia also participated in the
raids in hundreds of locations across the European Union.
According
to Wainwright, as a result of the operation 1,027 people were arrested, 30
children were rescued from trafficking, about 10,000 illegal migrants were
checked and over 2.1 tonnes of drugs including cocaine, heroin and cannabis
were confiscated.
Seized: 1.3 tonnes cannabis, 599 kg cocaine, 200 kg
heroin. Live online updates on #OpArchimedes results
here: https://t.co/GPWq1NQJZb
— Europol (@Europol_EU) September 24, 2014
Europol
head said the operation, that was coordinated from The Hague, the Dutch home
city of the organization, “has led I think to a very significant attack on the whole
criminal infrastructure in Europe.”
“What we
have seen emerging is an integrated underground criminal economy,” Reuters reports Wainwright as saying,
referring to the ‘dark net’ – or encrypted internet – used by
criminals to communicate with each other.
The
arrests during the biggest European sweep were mainly made among criminal middlemen
and criminal groups’ mediators.
“Months
in the planning, it was a carefully coordinated series of attacks on key nodal
points and crime sectors that underpin the underground crime economy in
Europe,” Europol
head said.
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