Indian police investigate a smuggling network revealed by the immobilization of a plane in the Marne

The situation has resolved in France, but not in India. Indian police said on Friday, December 29, that they were working to find the leaders of a network of smugglers, discovered during the recent immobilization by the French authorities of a plane carrying 303 Indian passengers to Nicaragua. “We want to know how these people came into contact with the smugglers” And “what was their plan after reaching Nicaragua”, Sanjay Kharat, Gujarat state police commissioner, told AFP.

The latter paid between “4 and 12 million rupees” (or between 43,500 and 130,500 euros) to smugglers to help them reach the southern border of the United States from South America, he added. Of the 276 passengers sent back to India, 66 were from Gujarat. “We have identified people who could provide us with information about this illegal trafficking and are in the process of interviewing them”, he clarified. Most of the other passengers are from the state of Punjab, in northern India, where police also told AFP they were investigating.

The plane was seized a few days before Christmas, at Vatry airport (Marne), during a stopover to refuel, after an anonymous report indicating that it was transporting potential victims of human trafficking. humans. It took off again on Monday from France to Bombay after the seizure was lifted, with 276 of its passengers on board. Twenty-five people chose to stay in France to apply for asylum. Two other passengers, suspected of being smugglers, were placed under assisted witness status and left free.