Over 170 Arrested in Organized Property Crime Bust
On November 11th, EUROPOL announced its support with Operation Trivium, a multi-country operation that led to 174 arrests and to the seizure of various assets throughout Europe. With the collaboration of 17 different law enforcement agencies, they were able to carry out vast roadside checks on citizens and vehicles while also carrying out specific property searches. Operation Trivium was originally created under the jurisdiction of the EMPACT security initiative.
During the days of November 3rd through 5th, law enforcement was able to:
- Arrest 174 suspects
- Confiscate 27 vehicles
- Seize 200 other assets, including narcotics and firearms
- Check 25,000 persons
- Check 16,000 vehicles
- And Check 800 locations
This was all done within the span of a few days. Reports show that multiple aspects of organized crime were disrupted due to Operation Trivium. Many criminals were left empty-handed as many drugs and firearms were seized. Even though the main goal of the operations was to target organized property crime, arrests were also made for weapons, narcotics, and immigration policy violations.
Multiple methods were deployed as part of Operation Trivium XV. The usage of Automatic Plate Recognition devices led to multiple stops by law enforcement, which ultimately led to arrests for the aforementioned violations. More specifically, there was a case in Belgium where a driver was caught driving erratically. Law enforcement stopped the vehicle, and ultimately found thousands of euros in cash, an alarm pistol, and large amounts of narcotics including cannabis and cocaine. In another incident, Belgian police discovered a driver transporting 70,000 euros in small bundles. Later in his interrogation, the driver admitted that the cash was acquired from drug trafficking between Germany and Belgium.
Beginning in 2013, Operation Trivium seeks to disrupt organized property crime throughout Europe’s road networks. This fifteenth installment of the operation was a larger-scaled version of the one carried out back in April, which led to 200 arrests and significant criminal asset seizures. These multi-country operations are able to be executed so efficiently due to the speedy communication and information sharing between the European law enforcement agencies. Countries that were involved included Albania, Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Lithuania, Malta, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Spain and Sweden. We are still waiting to hear more results from France, Lithuania, and Malta.
source: Europol
