:format(webp)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/grupoclarin/ZKJM4SFRJVFXXL7W5UWMOWF4DU.jpg "German police raid human smuggling ring linked to China")
BERLIN (AP) — More than 1,000 police searched dozens of homes, businesses and law offices in western and southern Germany on Wednesday morning as part of a large-scale operation against an international human smuggling ring. Ten suspects were arrested, according to the German news agency dpa.
The suspects are accused of taking advantage of special immigration rules for qualified personnel to obtain residence permits in Germany for about 350 people, mostly Chinese, in exchange for hundreds of thousands of euros (dollars).
The searches were carried out in the states of North Rhine-Westphalia, Schleswig-Holstein, Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate, Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria, as well as Hamburg and Berlin. Police seized assets and gathered evidence. Several immigration office employees had been bribed in the scheme, according to the Bild newspaper.
The investigation focused on North Rhine-Westphalia, where 10 suspects were arrested. Among them were two lawyers, dpa noted.