Austria arrests 15 people suspected of smuggling migrants

BERLIN (AP) — Austrian authorities say they have arrested 15 people suspected of smuggling Syrian, Lebanese and Egyptian migrants into the country and seized 14 vehicles that were used to transport them. Police in Lower Austria province said Saturday they opened an investigation last month into the group that smuggled migrants from the Serbian-Hungarian border via Slovakia and the Czech Republic to the Mistelbach area north of Vienna. The 15 suspected smugglers — citizens of Moldova, Ukraine and Uzbekistan — were arrested mostly in checks in mid-November on suspicious vehicles and, in one case, at a Vienna hotel. All of them tried to flee when they were stopped.