Estonian court jails Bulgarian driver who brought migrants in from Latvia

The Pärnu District Court in Estonia has found a Bulgarian citizen guilty of bringing illegal migrants into the country and sentenced him to prison. Police detained the man on 6 October near the border between Kose municipality and Järva County, where seven foreign nationals who had entered the country illegally were found in his vehicle.

The court handed down a sentence of one year and ten months, with three months to be served immediately. He will then be expelled from Estonia to Bulgaria and banned from entering for five years. If he commits a new crime, the court may order the full sentence to be served.

A job found on social media

Marko Roose, head of the organized and serious crime group at the criminal bureau of the Southern Prefecture, said the 63-year-old lives in Germany and saw a job advertisement on TikTok. After he contacted the poster, his bus ticket from Germany to Riga, hotel and rental car were paid for. Following instructions, he drove to an agreed spot near the Belarusian border in Latvia, picked up seven migrants and headed for Tallinn until an Estonian police patrol stopped them on the Tallinn–Tartu highway.

Other suspects in custody

This week, at the Prosecutor's Office's request, the court also took into custody a German citizen and two Pakistani citizens caught transporting nine migrants in total in Tori and Häädemeeste municipalities. Two Ukrainian citizens were also detained after being caught in Paldiski trying to put two illegal migrants on a ship bound for Sweden. All of them will remain in custody during pre-trial proceedings.

The law provides for up to three years in prison for illegally transporting a foreigner across Estonia's border, and up to seven years if the migrants are put in a life-threatening or seriously harmful situation.

Since migration pressure began in July, police have detained nearly 320 foreign nationals from African and Asian countries, including Afghanistan and Bangladesh. About 50 criminal proceedings have been launched, 11 suspects are in custody for human smuggling, and two people have already been sentenced to prison.

Prosecutor Keili Tiirik said smugglers face a growing likelihood of being caught, and any identified criminal profits will be confiscated. Roose urged people to treat vague job offers critically and to report suspicious vehicles or unusual groups of foreign nationals to police on 112.