Border guards looking for people smuggler
Authorities on the northern Greek border with Turkey have requested the assistance of Turkish police to apprehend a suspected people smuggler who was intercepted by border security in the early hours of Wednesday, but managed to elude arrest.
The suspect was spotted by border guards and members of the European Union’s border monitoring agency Frontex disembarking 20 undocumented migrants on the Greek coast of the Evros River at Tychero from a rubber dinghy.
The border police shone floodlights on the river and demanded that the driver of the dinghy surrender, before firing shots aimed at the vessel’s engine.
The suspected people smuggler, however, sped back toward the Turkish coast of the river, where his vessel was seen several hours later about three kilometers south of the point where the initial altercation occurred.
Greek authorities alerted Turkish police of the incident and requested the arrest of the suspect.
Of the 20 people who disembarked on the Greek coast, 16 were arrested by local authorities for failing to produce proper documentation.
