German police on Tuesday conducted raids against a group suspected of smuggling Syrian migrants into the country.

Police said they had made five arrests. All were Syrians and asylum seekers themselves. They had family ties and were accused of smuggling more than 100 Syrians, the DPA news agency reported.

Authorities issued arrest warrants for two women and a man in Stade, a city in Lower Saxony in northern Germany, and a woman and a man each in Gladbeck, a city in North Rhine Westphalia in western Germany.

Migrants paid for passage

The people who had arrived had paid between €3,000 to €7,000 ($3,175 to $7,418) each for illegally entering Germany. The suspects then bought gold with the money, the report said.

Police said the suspected network of people were accused of illegally bringing people in an organized manner as well as money laundering.

More than 350 officers searched locations as part of the investigation. Police also conducted raids in the states of Hesse, Bremen and Bavaria.

The raids were ordered by federal police at Frankfurt airport on suspicion of commercial smuggling of foreigners.

rm/jcg (dpa, AP)

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