Ten people, including two lawyers, were arrested in Germany on Wednesday amid a large-scale police operation targeting a people-smuggling ring suspected of fraudulently obtaining residency for some 350 mostly Chinese nationals, police said.

More than 1,000 officers from the German federal police and other law enforcement agencies searched a total of 101 residential and business premises during the operation, which spanned eight of Germany's 16 states.

The operation was overseen by the federal criminal police department in the western city of Cologne.

What do we know so far?

The people-smuggling gang is accused of exploiting special rules for foreign skilled workers to obtain the residence permits, according to federal police in the western city of Sankt Augustin near Bonn. 

Clients of the gang are said to have paid five- and six-figure euro sums to obtain the permits.

According to the daily mass-circulation Bild newspaper, the gang bribed several employees of immigration offices.

The 10 suspects were taken into custody in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia, where the operation was focused. Raids were also carried out in Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, Berlin, Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate, Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria, police said.

They said assets were seized and evidence collected during the operation as well.

In 2022, federal law enforcement agencies registered 4,936 cases of people smuggling across Germany. That represents an increase of almost 30% compared to the previous year.

Material from the dpa news agency was used in the writing of this article.

Edited by: Wesley Dockery

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