People-smuggling crackdown sees 75 arrested across Europe

75 PEOPLE were arrested across Europe in a massive police crackdown on a people-smuggling racket that brought illegal immigrants from Asia to Britain and Scandinavia, policing agency Europol said yesterday.

About 1,300 officers took part in Operation Baghdad in 10 countries, arresting two dozen in France, among them a “network boss”, and dozens more in Ireland, Germany, Greece, Belgium, Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden and Britain.

“All suspects are said to be involved in the clandestine smuggling of a large number of illegal immigrants into and within the European Union,” said a joint statement by Europol and Eurojust — a network of European judicial authorities.