Odesa Prosecutors Charge Group for Smuggling Military-Aged Men Abroad

Prosecutors of the Odesa Regional Prosecutor's Office have sent to court an indictment against the organizer and four members of an organized group on the fact of illegal transportation of persons across the state border of Ukraine committed by an organized group for mercenary reasons.

According to the press service of the Odesa Regional Prosecutor's Office, it concerns a group of 47 men who were attempted to be transported across the border in June 2024.

The investigation established that a 30-year-old resident of Odesa region organized an illegal channel for men of military age to leave Ukraine. The group consisted of his acquaintance, a police officer, a foreign national and two local residents.

The accomplices looked for "clients" and organized their "escape" to unrecognized Transnistria. The police officer provided cover - informed about the location of checkpoints and laid out safe detour routes. The men had to cross the border along paths, bypassing official checkpoints.

For such services, the offenders received from 4 to 18.5 thousand USD from each evader. The investigation documented at least four cases of people smuggling, as well as receiving payment in the form of digital assets on crypto wallets.

The organizer and one of his accomplices are currently in custody.

In Odesa region, law enforcement officers detained four minibuses with 47 men of military age, along with an SUV with a driver and a passenger accompanying them. At the time, the State Bureau of Investigation reported that there were supposed to be 100 potential offenders, but 53 failed to reach the assembly point and join the motorcade.

Before that, the record was 41 people who were attempted to be taken away in a grain truck.

At the request of the investigators, the court has now imposed a pre-trial restraint in the form of detention with the right to be released on bail on the driver of the grain truck from Izmail, who tried to smuggle 41 people of military age abroad.

Кирило Бойко