A regional court in Landshut has sentenced a man to seven years in prison for his role in a network that smuggled migrants into Germany in dangerous conditions. The case is one of several recent smuggling prosecutions heard in the Bavarian town.
German authorities are continuing to investigate and prosecute people-smuggling networks operating on routes into Bavaria, with Landshut, a town about 70 kilometers northeast of Munich, emerging as a key venue for such cases. In the latest judgment, the regional court in Landshut sentenced a man to seven years in prison for his role in smuggling migrants into Germany under dangerous conditions. The court also ordered the confiscation of 12,000 euros in criminal proceeds.
According to the court, the man was involved in nine smuggling incidents and had joined a network in the summer of 2023 that moved people from Hungary into Germany. Prosecutors said the group cooperated with a Serbian organization that first brought migrants to Budapest from other countries. The defendant was described as one of the leading figures in the group and was said to have commissioned smuggling trips, taken part in transport journeys and paid drivers.
The indictment alleged that migrants were often transported without adequate safety measures, including on the loading areas of vehicles. In some cases, prosecutors said, the vehicles were overloaded or people were hidden in car trunks.
Read AlsoGermany: More than half of survey respondents in favor of full closure of the borders
Landshut court specialized in smuggling cases
The Landshut court has also heard other smuggling cases in recent weeks. In one separate case, a man was sentenced to four years and three months in prison for helping organize the entry of 53 people into Germany in 12 incidents. The court ordered the confiscation of 10,410 euros in proceeds in that case, which is not yet final.
The high number of proceedings in Landshut is partly explained by a special Bavarian jurisdictional arrangement. The public prosecutor’s office in Landshut has supra-regional responsibility for economic crime and organized crime, including people smuggling, across several eastern Bavarian court districts. That means complex cross-border cases are often handled there rather than by local prosecutors elsewhere.
In another major development, German and Swiss authorities recently arrested five suspected members of a smuggling network accused of bringing more than 700 people into Germany and generating millions of euros in illegal profits. Investigators said the group operated between October 2023 and March 2024, and linked the case to earlier smuggling activity in the Passau area near the Austrian border. Authorities said migrants were transported in life-threatening conditions in the loading areas of vans and trucks.
Together, the cases point to continued enforcement pressure on organized smuggling networks using Central European routes into Germany. However it is worth noting that Bavarian authorities said in February that the state’s border police had recorded a sharp decline in unauthorized entries and smuggling cases in 2025, even as people-smuggling remained a persistent issue.
Read AlsoEU proposes sanctions against migrant smugglers
With dpa and AFP