On January 14, Vitebsk /BelTA/. New details have emerged in Vitebsk regarding the participants of an international criminal group involved in the transit of illegal migrants, BelTA reports with reference to the official website of the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee. In November 2012, the Vitebsk regional department of the Main Directorate for Combating Organised Crime and Corruption of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Belarus received operational information concerning participants of an international criminal group involved in organising a channel for the illegal transportation of citizens of Afghanistan, Iraq, and other countries with a high risk of terrorism, as well as Vietnam, to EU countries, particularly the Republic of Lithuania, from the Russian Federation via the territory of the Republic of Belarus. It was established that the criminal group included citizens of Russia, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, and Iraq. On January 8, 2013, at approximately 18:00, officers of the Department for Combating Organised Crime and Corruption in the Vitebsk region, jointly with officers of the operational activities service of the Polotsk Border Guard Detachment, and with the support of OMON (Special Police Unit) officers of the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee, detained two citizens of the Russian Federation, born in 1982 and 1976, residents of Moscow and the Moscow region, one of whom was a native of Iraq, as well as their accomplice, a citizen of Belarus born in 1981. They had organised the entry of six citizens of Vietnam, one citizen of Iraq, and one citizen of Afghanistan into the territory of Belarus without entry visas of the Republic of Belarus and identity documents. The participants of the criminal group intended to transport the illegal migrants to Lithuania on the same day via a section of the Belarusian-Lithuanian border in the Braslav district of the Vitebsk region. The accomplice, a citizen of Belarus, received $1.6 thousand from his Russian accomplices out of the $8 thousand promised after the illegal migrants crossed the state border, for ensuring their further transportation to Lithuania. On January 9, the Investigative Committee Department for the Vitebsk region initiated a criminal case against the detained citizens of Russia and Belarus under Part 2 of Article 371-1 of the Criminal Code of Belarus, the sanctions of which provide for imprisonment for a term of 3 to 7 years with confiscation of property. Two vehicles used to transport the illegal migrants have been seized.