Police forces have searched properties in four German states in a major raid against suspected members of a people-smuggling gang. An Interior Ministry spokesman said the operation on Wednesday morning in North Rhine Westphalia, Hesse, Bavaria and Schleswig-Holstein was aimed at executing several European arrest warrants. Police authorities in France and Belgium also participated, the German ministry said. The suspects are said to have been involved in smuggling people across the English Channel. The spokesman announced that the operation focussed on the western German state of North Rhine Wes…