A police officer intercepted a car carrying seven Syrian refugees on the motorway from Bratislava to Brno and tried to escape the patrols. The police used passing trucks to block the highway.
The smuggler driving the car was fleeing from the bi-national patrols. “But the long pursuit began in Hungary when the man behind the wheel tried to evade road checks and headed for Slovakia via the Rusovce-Rajka border crossing,” described Petr Vala, a spokesman for the South Moravian police.
Slovak police officers also tried to stop the car with firearms but failed to do so. “Czech colleagues were contacted and sent all the nearest patrols to meet him. Fortunately, there was also a patrol of motorway police officers near the former border crossing Lanžhot, who promptly stopped all traffic in the narrowing,” Vala added.
They used two trucks that were lined up side by side. The officers in their official cars subsequently blocked the possible escape points.
There were seven Syrians in the truck’s back seat and in the boot. The driver faces up to five years behind bars for the offense of organizing and facilitating the illegal crossing of the state border.
Vala pointed out that while in 2021, South Moravian police officers detained 483 foreigners, since the beginning of 2022, the number of foreigners has reached 6305. Of these, 2,931 were in September alone. At the same time, 17 smugglers were also detained.