Italy arrests 23 suspected of people-smuggling

Italian police said yesterday that it had broken up a crime ring between Tunisia and Italy which smuggled illegal immigrants by sea, including people wanted by the Tunisian authorities for “links to terrorist organisations”.

TV reports claimed that the prosecutor in Palermo, Francesco Le Foy, issued arrest warrants for 23 people including five Italians and ten Tunisians who posed a threat to the country’s national security.

[The ring] has in recent months transferred persons wanted to the Tunisian authorities for their links with jihadist terrorist organisations from Tunisia to the coast of Marsala (Sicily) on rubber boats.

It pointed out that some of the wanted men who were transferred by the crime ring were “extremely dangerous who feared imminent arrest by the Tunisian security services” while some of them had previously been expelled from Italy.

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The ring is reported to have smuggled small groups of illegal immigrants to the coast of Trapani in Sicily for large amounts of money on fast rubber boats driven by professional smugglers who could reach the coast of Sicily from Tunisia within four hours.