More than 350 elements of the German federal police participated in a series of raids targeting a number of buildings across the country on Tuesday morning, suspected of harboring migrants.

The German news agency reported that the raids focused on cities and towns in northern and western Germany, as well as Bavaria in the south.

The police stated that they found more than 100 Syrians inside the apartments and other buildings searched on Tuesday.

The authorities also executed 5 arrest warrants, three of which were in the town of Stadt, north of the country, and two in the town of Gladbeck in the west, where the federal police indicated in a statement that all five detainees are Syrian asylum seekers who already live in Germany.

The Associated Press explained that the Syrian migrants had paid traffickers up to 7000 euros ($7400) to smuggle them into Germany, indicating that the suspects had purchased quantities of gold with the money obtained from the illegal migrants.

It was also reported by the AP that investigators seized mobile phones, SIM cards, gold worth 220 thousand euros, and cash amounts up to 16 thousand euros.