The suspect, a Polish citizen, was detained by police and border guards in the southern Silesian region last week, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
In June, investigators detained five members of the criminal group, two Pakistani nationals, two Indian citizens and one person from Tajikistan, according to officials.
“These detentions helped in tracking down the 48-year-old Polish woman who had organised and ran the whole operation,” the Polish Border Guard agency’s Szymon Mościcki told reporters.
The group could have been active for several years, smuggling illegal migrants from Belarus via Lithuania to Poland, and in some cases further on to other European countries, according to the police.
The gang was charging some EUR 5,000 for smuggling a person to Poland, and twice as much for smuggling someone through Poland to Britain, for instance, the Border Guard agency said.
Prosecutors have charged the woman with “running an organised criminal group active on Polish territory, with the aim of enabling other persons to cross illegally into Poland,” the PAP news agency reported.
A regional court in the eastern town of Garwolin has ordered that the suspect be put under temporary detention, according to officials.
Meanwhile, four of the five members of the group detained in June remain under temporary arrest, while the fifth member is under police supervision, the PAP news agency reported.
Over the past 24 hours, 35 migrants attempted to cross illegally from Belarus to Poland, the Border Guard agency said on Friday.
They included nine Iraqi citizens who crossed the border river of Podcerkówka, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.
A group of seven illegal migrants threw stones at Polish border patrols near the village of Dubicze Cerkiewne, according to officials.
Since the start of the year, there have been 21,000 attempts to cross illegally into Poland from Belarus, the Border Guard agency said.
In a bid to block illegal migration from Belarus, Poland last year built a 186-kilometre-long, 5.5-metre-high steel wall along the shared border, as well as a system of surveillance cameras and motion sensors, the PAP news agency reported.
In 2024, Polish authorities will launch the installation of similar electronic equipment on the banks of the border rivers Bug, Świsłocz and Istoczanka, according to the Border Guard.
The system of cameras and motion detectors is expected to be co-funded by the European Union, the PAP news agency reported.
(pm/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP, strazgraniczna.pl