Smuggling

A criminal court on Rhodes has handed a 145-year prison sentence to a 21-year-old Syrian national after deeming him responsible for the death of 11 immigrants during a coast guard rescue operation off the eastern Aegean islet of Farmakonisi in January last year.

The court also fined the 21-year-old 570,000 euros after deeming that he had captained the vessel.

Stronger control key to prevent weapons smuggling from BiH

The number of illegal immigrants entering the European Union more than doubled last year with 75% of them having arrived through the Mediterranean Sea, the EU migration commissioner has said.

More than 276,000 irregular migrants entered the European Union last year, more than double in 2013, the bloc's commissioner for migration and home affairs, Dimitris Avramopoulos, said Jan. 14.

"In 2014, more than 276,000 migrants arrived in the EU, representing an increase of 138 percent compared to the previous year," Avramopoulos told the European Parliament.

The recent rise in fixed tax from cigarettes and alcohol over the inflation rate will encourage smuggling, the head of the Confederation of Turkish Craftsmen and Tradesmen (TESK) Bendevi Palandöken has said.

The market share of illicit trading in cigarettes in Bulgaria increased last year to 20%, translating into about half a billion levs (EUR 250 M) in lost government revenue from taxes and excise duty, according to a new study.  

People traffickers have dramatically raised the stakes by using freighters to carry hundreds of migrants to Europe at a time, then jumping ship as the vessels steam towards shore.

Italian coastguards have narrowly prevented two disasters this week off the country's southern coast involving so-called "ghost ships", which seem to have originated in Turkey.

As the government has recently developed new methods to fight against border trafficking, smugglers have created new loopholes to not be caught. One of the latest methods of smugglers is known as the “twin truck method,” which has surprised customs authorities, including Customs and Trade Minister Nurettin Canikli himself.

Six Greeks and a Syrian suspected of running a migrant smuggling ring were questioned by a prosecutor on the island of Zakynthos on Saturday and face criminal charges.

8 people have been detained for the unlawful production and distribution of drugs in a joint operation of Bulgaria's State Agency for National Security (DANS) and the Czech authorities.