BERLIN (AP) — German police on Thursday arrested two men following raids targeting organized migrant smuggling in the country’s capital and the northern state of Lower Saxony.

About 260 officers took part in the raids during which eight properties where searched in Lower Saxony and another six in Berlin.

The suspects are accused of smuggling more than 200 migrants, most of them Syrians, into the European Union, German news agency dpa reported.

One of the suspects, a 23-year-old man from Berlin, was arrested in Garbsen near Hannover. The other, a 40-year-old man, was placed in custody in Lehrte near Hanover on the strength of an Austrian arrest warrant.

Authorities gave no further details about the identity of the suspects. But security officials said the two were part of a group of smugglers – most of whom are Iraqis – which allegedly brought at least 208 migrants into the EU during a dozen smuggling trips between August 2022 and June 2023.

The suspects transported the migrants “in unsuitable vehicles” without rest or food and in extreme heat, dpa reported.

They allegedly charged 4,000-5,000 euros ($4,357-5,446) per person. The route taken by the smugglers went through Hungary, Austria, the Czech Republic and ultimately Germany.

Wealthy Germany is a top destination for migrants from around the world, but shelters in the country have been filling up and the government is under pressure to curb migration and speed up deportations of rejected asylum seekers.

In recent weeks, Germany also started carrying out systematic checks on its borders to Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland to keep irregular migrants from entering the country in the first place.

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