Police smash ring smuggling Palestinians

MADRID: Police in Spain and France have smashed a criminal ring suspected of smuggling hundreds of Palestinians into Europe through fraudulent asylum claims, Spanish police said on Sunday.

Officers arrested nine people, including the suspected leader of the network, in the two countries as part of the operation carried out with European police agency Europol, a Spanish police statement said.

Police suspect since January 2018 the group flew around 1,200 Palestinians living in Middle Eastern countries via Bolivia to Madrid, where they would then make a "fraudulent asylum request".