3 arrested in Trapani for expensive, high-speed migrant boat journeys

Last Updated: March 16, 2024

Viaggi in gommoni veloci e costosi per migranti, 3 arrestati a Trapani

The investigating judge of Trapani issued three precautionary measures on the proposal of the Palermo Dda against three Tunisians accused of criminal association aimed at favoring illegal immigration, aggravated by transnationality. The measures were carried out by the mobile squad agents and follow the investigations of the central operative service of the State police, which on February 21 last, led to the detention of 10 subjects, 6 Italians and 4 Tunisians, investigated for creating cells in Italy and Tunisia for the transfer of migrants by guaranteeing “VIP trips”.

The clandestine journey would have been guaranteed through sturdy and fast vessels, in exchange for sums of money ranging from 3 to 6 thousand euros. The group would have sponsored the most expensive trips because they were carried out with a minimum number of clandestine migrants not exceeding twenty, in optimal weather and sea conditions, on rubber boats equipped with high-powered engines. The organizers would have also ensured interested Tunisians a fast and safe crossing, guaranteeing not to be intercepted by military ships.

The three subjects targeted by today’s precautionary measure in prison, two of whom were irregular in the national territory, were already detained as they had been previously arrested in flagrante delicto, precisely in the context of this investigation. Two of them allegedly acted as smugglers during two phantom landings: on June 29, the alleged smuggler, after the landing of 14 migrants, as soon as he saw the police, tried to escape by sea, failed due to engine failure; while on August 14, the rubber boat, with 12 migrants on board, was intercepted by investigators off the coast of the island of Favignana.

The third arrested person, instead, would have recruited Tunisian smugglers. During the operation, three other people, originally from Marsala (Trapani), were subject to the precautionary measure of obligation to present themselves to the public prosecutor’s office, entrusted with providing logistical support to the investigated criminal group.