European police

Arrests have been made in Bulgaria, Israel and Spain in a cross-border bust of a large criminal network involved in investment fraud and money laundering, European police agency Europol said on May 12.

The fraud scheme, organised mainly by Israeli nationals, included call centres, was run from Bulgaria and the Republic of North Macedonia.

A Lebanese citizen who was detained in Greece for four days on suspicion of involvement in a 1985 TWA hijacking and set free after it turned out to be a case of mistaken identity arrived at the port of Piraeus on Tuesday afternoon, after taking the ferry from Syros, where he had been held.

A Lebanese citizen who was detained in Greece on suspicion of involvement in a 1985 TWA hijacking and set free after it turned out to be a case of mistaken identity is in good health and expected to fly back to Lebanon, the man and his wife said Tuesday.

Greek authorities said early on Tuesday that the arrest of a Lebanese man on suspicion of participation in a TWA flight hijacking in 1985 was a case of mistaken identity.

The 65-year-old was released without charges and was being put up at a hotel on the Aegean Sea island of Syros, where he had been detained the past four days, a police statement said.

Patrolling dirt paths on sun-baked hills bordering Greece, a European police team is helping Albania intercept more of the migrants trying to reach European Union states to the north.

Dragan Mektic, Bosnia's Security Minister told a Wednesday meeting in Sarajevo with representatives of police agencies and interior ministers that no agreement had been reached to establish a joint contact point with Europol.

Joint contact with the Europol is the last obligation Bosnia must meet to begin implementation of an operational agreement with the European police office.

European police forces cannot impose blanket height restrictions on recruits because that discriminates against women, the EU's top court ruled on Wednesday, throwing out an argument from the Greek government.

Police said Wednesday that a people smuggling operation unraveled last week in Attica used stolen passports and even forged an ID belonging to a member of Eurojust - the European Union agency dealing with judicial cooperation in criminal matters - to fly refugees into Central and Northern Europe.

The main suspect in the Barcelona van attack that killed 13 people last week, 22-year-old Younes Abouyaaqoub, was detained on Aug. 21 in Sant Sadurni de Noya, west of Barcelona, Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia said.
   

Turkey is engaging in “hostage diplomacy” by holding several US and German citizens on seemingly trumped-up terrorism charges as bargaining chips in order to force the US and Germany to extradite Turkish nationals, according to current and former security officials in Europe and the US.