Italian police arrest several suspected smugglers Human rights activists: nearly 700 arrests in Egypt since October

Italian police arrested several suspected smugglers in Sicily.

Law enforcement charges eleven Tunisians and seven Italians with facilitating illegal immigration to Italy by mostly North African citizens, according to authorities in the central Sicilian city of Caltanissetta on Thursday. Twelve people were arrested during the operation with about 120 officers.

According to the investigation, the criminal gang allegedly brought the migrants across the Mediterranean Sea to Sicily from various locations on the Tunisian coast in several small, powerful boats. In February 2019, in the port of the southern Sicilian town of Gela, police found their first clue when one of the boats sank there and it was suspected that dozens of migrants had reached Italy with it.

A crossing to Sicily with 10 to 30 people each took about four hours, police said. The suspects stole about 3,000 to 5,000 euros per person for this. The gang operated from the town of Niscemi, north of Gela. There, an entrepreneur worked with her, who provided the migrants and smugglers with employment contracts to justify their stay in Italy. Intercepted calls also revealed that the smugglers were prepared to “get rid of” the migrants on the high seas if necessary if their boats had engine failures.

The arrivals of boat migrants are highly controversial in Italy. More than 93,200 people will have reached the country’s shores by 2022, according to the Interior Ministry. The new right-wing government wants to stop the arrivals. Recently, the non-acceptance of hundreds of migrants rescued from distress at sea by ships belonging to international aid agencies sparked a diplomatic dispute with Germany and France. (aeg/sda/dpa)