SBU uncovers another scheme for smuggling men across border

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has dismantled another scheme in Transcarpathia involving smuggling of military-aged men across the border via a river.

The SBU Office in Zhytomyr Region reported this on Facebook, as cited by Ukrinform.

“The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), together with the National Police, blocked a new scheme for military-aged men to leave the country in Transcarpathia near the border. The organizer smuggled potential conscripts outside official checkpoints, across a river marking the state border with Romania. For a "safe transfer" across the border, "clients" were provided with wetsuits and physical escorts. They also received instructions on behavior and actions during and immediately after crossing the border,” the report reads.

According to the SBU, this service cost between $6,000 and $10,000 per person, depending on weather conditions and the difficulty of the river crossing.

Law enforcement detained the person involved in organizing the "traffic" after he received $8,100 from a conscript dodger from Zhytomyr region.

As established by law enforcement, the scheme's organizer is a 32-year-old resident of a village in Rakhiv district, located on the border between Ukraine and a neighboring country. Through personal acquaintances and connections, he found "clients" from several regions of Ukraine, including Zhytomyr, offered them a trip to Transcarpathia under the guise of "vacation," accommodated them in local hotels, and, under favorable weather conditions, smuggled them across the border river.

During authorized searches, law enforcement officers seized physical evidence, including a mobile phone with correspondence between the suspect and clients, cash, bank cards, and military registration documents.

The detainee has been charged with organizing the illegal smuggling of persons across Ukraine's state border, assisting in the act through advice and instructions, and doing so in conspiracy with others for personal gain, under Part 3 of Article 332 (Illegal smuggling of persons across the state border) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

As reported by Ukrinform, in Chernihiv region near the border with Belarus, officers of the 105th border detachment uncovered and detained the organizer of an illegal scheme to smuggle military-aged citizens across Ukraine's state border.