Italy nets suspects in smuggling ring

ROME — Italian police on Saturday arrested 19 suspects, dismantling what authorities say was a criminal organization that moved migrants from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and Pakistan to Italy and then into northern Europe.

The investigation, led by prosecutors in Catania, Sicily, unveiled a network that involved hired or stolen sailboats transporting migrants through Turkey and Greece to Italy. Some then traveled north to the French border and were taken by vehicle into France by smugglers in border towns, police said.

The arrested suspects included Iraqi Kurds, Afghans and Italians, police said.

One of the ring’s bases purportedly was in Bari, southern Italy, where false documents were issued indicating the people had housing, a requirement for residency permits. Other bases were in Milan and Turin in northern Italy as well as in the town of Ventimiglia, near the French border.

Others involved in the scheme falsified work contracts so the migrants could apply for permission to live in Italy, authorities said.

The investigation began in 2018, triggered by the arrival of 10 boats near the eastern Sicilian city of Syracuse. The boats had sailed from Turkey and Greece in the eastern Mediterranean, and not from Libya, from where for years the majority of the hundreds of thousands of migrants had set out for Italy in traffickers’ unseaworthy vessels.

Skippers who were engaged to sail the boats to Sicily were paid about $1,000 per crossing, while people each paid about $7,200 to be smuggled from Asia, the police said.