Berlin, Mar 15 (AP) German police on Wednesday conducted raids against a group suspected of smuggling about 90 people into the country, making five arrests, authorities said.

More than 20 apartments and offices in Berlin and the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt were searched, along with three vehicles and a bank safe in the Bavarian town of Hof, police and prosecutors in the German capital said in a joint statement.

Also Read | DRC dilemma: Generate oil wealth or combat climate change?.

Five men were arrested, four of them in Berlin and one in the city of Halle.

The group is suspected of bringing about 90 people, mostly from Turkey and Iraq, to Germany between October 2019 and January this year, with migrants paying up to 10,000 euros ($10,500) to be smuggled by car or truck along the so-called Balkan route.

Also Read | Indonesia Government Starts Schools at 5:30 AM in Pilot Project To Instill Discipline; Faces Backlash From Parents, Students.

Nine people believed to be Turkish citizens who were in Germany illegally were discovered in the apartments that police searched on Wednesday. (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)