Bulgaria busts key migrant smuggling ring

SOFIA: Bulgaria has broken up a major crime ring thought to have smuggled thousands of migrants from Afghanistan en route to western Europe.

The gang smuggled the migrants -- predominantly boys under the age of 16 -- over the Maritsa river bordering Turkey and helped them cross illegally through the forests into Serbia, prosecutor Siyka Mileva told journalists. While authorities have not given an exact figure of how many people were smuggled, they believe the gang was active since early 2017 and Mileva said "there were transfers every week" in groups of "30-40 people at a time".