Odesa Police Officer Indicted for Smuggling Military-Aged Men Abroad for $6,500

An indictment against the former head of the water police sector of one of Odesa's district police departments has been sent to court. He is accused of setting up an illegal scheme to smuggle men of military age abroad (Part 3 of Article 332 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

This was reported by the Odesa Regional Prosecutor's Office.

According to the investigation, the law enforcement officer and his accomplices were looking for people willing to leave the country and organized their crossing outside the official checkpoint for USD 6,500. The smuggling was carried out on foot across the border in the Rozdilnyansky district.

Photo: Odesa Regional Prosecutor's Office

After receiving the money, the men were given detailed instructions and sent to a hotel, from where they were transported to the border by organized transport.

A police officer was detained while trying to smuggle four conscripts abroad. He has already been dismissed from law enforcement.

The investigation into other participants in the scheme is ongoing.

Prosecutors recently sent to court an indictment against the organizer and four members of the organized group on the fact of illegal transportation of persons across the state border of Ukraine committed by an organized group for mercenary reasons.

Also, the Prymorskyi District Court of Odesa granted the SBU's motion and seized a phone that was seized from a priest of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate from the village of Mayaki, who is accused of helping men illegally cross the border.

Earlier, in Odesa region, police exposed a serviceman of the TCC and JV who was organizing the illegal transportation of men across the state border of Ukraine.

Ірина Глухова