(ANSA) - CATANIA, 05 DEC - A cartel danger of 'facilitators' of the international smuggling of migrants connected with criminal groups in Turkey and Greece, which provided, for payment, about 6,000 euros per 'passenger', the necessary for an all-inclusive trip ', from departure to destination.
A criminal network, with support also in Greece and Turkey, which had ample money available to buy boats, generally sailing, stolen or rented, and to recruit skippers capable of piloting boats to the coast of the province of Syracuse, with smugglers paid a thousand euros by air travel .
This is the 'eastern route' to which the 19 arrested by the police referred, on the instructions of the Catania District Attorney, as part of the 'Mondiconnessi' operation carried out in Bari, Milan, Turin and Ventimiglia (Imperia) by the mobile teams of Syracuse and the other cities concerned and the central operational service.
The operation disrupted the group operating in our country indicated as "a necessary link" with "criminal groups active in Greece and Turkey, which facilitated immigrants on their way to their privileged destination, France and Northern Europe, through the 'eastern route' which passes through Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Greece and Italy ".
The investigations were started in 2018 by the analysis of 10 landed in the province of Syracuse, all with migrants coming from the Eastern Mediterranean route, Turkey or Greece.
The activities of the police allowed a criminal group, composed of Kurdish-Iraqis, Afghans and Italians, to ascend, which in exchange for money, favored the illegal entry of migrants first into our country and then into other Northern Europe.
He was also able to obtain the regularization in Italy of foreigners without the requisites of law, falsifying employment contracts and other documentation necessary to obtain a residence permit.
(HANDLE).