The Prosecutor's Office of Latvia has sent a criminal case to the Latgale District Court, in which a citizen of Estonia is charged with the illegal smuggling of immigrants across the Latvian border.
How it happened:
An unidentified individual, during the pre-trial investigation, created an organized group in the Telegram application for the illegal smuggling of people into Latvia without the necessary documents.
According to the indictment, this individual assigned responsibilities among the members of the organized group, managed and coordinated its activities, and provided other participants with instructions for committing specific crimes to achieve a common goal.
They also transmitted information about the location and movement routes of illegal immigrants.
In furtherance of the common criminal plan, one of the group members met two illegal immigrants — citizens of Eritrea and Ethiopia — and directed them to the Belarusian-Latvian border. There, he gave them instructions on how to cross the border bypassing border control, as well as provided coordinates of a location in the Kraslava region, indicated by the group leader, from where a citizen of Estonia was supposed to pick them up by car.
According to the indictment, following the group leader's instructions, the Estonian citizen arrived at the designated location, picked up the illegal immigrants in her car, and began transporting them to Riga.
The smuggler was detained in the Rezekne region: the police stopped her car, in which there were two illegal immigrants.
The prosecution notes that on October 20, 2023, amendments to the Criminal Code came into effect, providing for harsher penalties for the illegal smuggling of persons across the state border.
