The Montenegrin law enforcement authorities reported on Wednesday that they had arrested two leaders and 11 members of a ring of smugglers of migrants.

The arrest is a result of a months-long police operation aimed at busting a ring that smuggled asylum-seekers from Albania, via Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, towards members of the European Union.

The police believe that since the beginning of this year, this crime gang has enabled a few groups that included between 5-10 irregular of migrants to enter illegally Montenegro and after that, they have usually registered themselves as asylum seekers.

However, those applicants have not waited for the resolution of their status in Montenegro and embarked on their journey further to western Europe.

One of the arrestees is a foreign national who has stayed in a centre catering to foreigners in Montenegro.