TIRANA, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) -- Albanian police arrested five people charged with criminal offenses of "trafficking in human beings" and "assistance for illegal border crossing", local media reported on Wednesday.
According to a police report, the five citizens provided reception, transportation and accommodation facilities such as hotels and residential homes for third-country nationals, mainly Syrians, and enabled their trafficking from the territory of Albania to Montenegro to the final destination of the European Union (EU) countries.
The Local Directorate of Shkodra Police, northwest Albania, in cooperation with the Prosecutor's Office of the Shkodra Judicial District, the Directorate of the Special Operations Force in Tirana, after several months' investigation, completed the operation coded "GRE-HOT".
The structured criminal group on human trafficking exercised activity from Greece in the cities of Korca, Elbasan, Tirana, Lezha, Shkodra, Malesi e Madhe and then the transition to Montenegro.
Meanwhile, the police also seized 3 vehicles used for the transportation of the foreign nationals, an amount of euro currency and many cell phones.
In June 2018, the Albanian border police announced they would take additional measures along the border with Greece to stop the illegal migrants whose number increased significantly.
According to the border police report, more and more immigrants use the Albanian territory as a transit to move further to EU countries.
