German police arrest two men accused of smuggling as many as 200 migrants into the European Union

BERLIN (AP) — German police have arrested two men following raids targeting organized migrant-smuggling in the country’s capital and the northern state of Lower Saxony. About 260 officers took part in Thursday’s raids and searches at eight properties in Lower Saxony and another six in Berlin. The suspects are accused of smuggling more than 200 migrants, most of them Syrians, into the European Union. German news agency dpa reported that the two men arrested allegedly belonged to a group of mostly Iraqi smugglers that is thought to have carried out at least 12 smuggling trips between August 2022 and June 2023. The route taken by the smugglers went through Hungary, Austria, the Czech Republic and ultimately into Germany.