The Italian police announced today, Tuesday, the dismantling of a network for smuggling migrants, which resulted in the arrest of 15 Egyptians in several countries, due to their involvement in the use of sailboats to cross the Mediterranean in an illegal and dangerous way from Turkey to Greece and Italy.
According to a statement issued by the Italian police, this network has facilitated the entry of at least 3,000 immigrants to Italy illegally since 2021, and made profits exceeding $ 30 million by paying $ 10,000 for each illegal immigrant.
The Italian police said that the arrests took place at a simultaneous time in several countries, in cooperation with the police services in Albania, Germany, Turkey and the Sultanate of Oman, in coordination of Italian prosecutors specializing in fighting mafia gangs in Sicily, and by relying on Interpol and Europol.
She added that the smuggling network was led by an Egyptian managing its operations from Istanbul.
“This organization established a system that includes the recruitment of professional boat leaders, most of whom are Egyptians, to provide logistical support in Turkey while immigrants are waiting to leave, then these sailors transfer them with sailboats to the Greek and Italian coasts.”
The statement stated that the transit operations of Bodrum, Izmir and Turkish ports took up to a week, during which dozens of migrants were accumulated on sailing boats ranging between 12 and 15 meters, without any rescue equipment.
Tens of thousands of immigrants are believed to have died during their attempts to cross the Mediterranean in the past years.
The maritime road from Turkey to Italy has gained a particularly bad reputation since February 2023, when at least 94 migrants died off the coast of Cotro in southern Italy in one of the worst disasters related to the illegal immigration crisis.
