Six Italian Citizens Arrested for Smuggling Immigrants Near Border With Switzerland
In this regard, a person was accused of running a smuggling network that transferred immigrants from Milan to Switzerland and Germany, AtoZSerwisPlus.pl reports.
As InfoMigrants explains, the Porto Ceresio Police arrested the main suspect in a province about 50 kilometres north of Milan, located just across Lake Lucano from Switzerland.
The person in question came from Algeria and is 41 years old. He now faces charges of aiding and abetting illegal migration.
In addition, an investigation carried out together with the Swiss and Italian authorities, said that this person created an operative cell of an organization that took undocumented Iraqi and Syrian immigrants from Milan to northern Europe.
During the police operation, five other suspects were also arrested after being caught at the Porto Ceresio border crossing in vehicles with migrants on board.
Th police had been monitoring the man’s activities for months. At the same time, the police emphasized that this person is a resident of Italy and has a small business.
Between October of last year and May of this year, investigators believe that this person helped smuggle 20 Kurdish immigrants from Syria and Iraq, including nine minors, across the border into Switzerland.
Moreover, the smuggled migrants first arrived in southern Italy after crossing the Mediterranean Sea and then headed north.
The investigators explain that the suspect welcomed the immigrants who arrived by train from Milan and hosted them temporarily in his home. Afterwards, he reached his collaborators who were mostly Syrian. Italian media also report that most of the migrants’ intention is to reach Germany.
The police added that some of the suspects, in this case, were also arrested for selling drugs.
Previously, a total of 103 migrants, who were Afghan, Indian, Nepalese, and Burundian nationals who had left on a train for Italy, were caught trying to cross the border illegally from Slovenia.
The Slovenian police found these people after they had left two centers for asylum seekers in the country.
In July, Italian security forces also arrested two suspected migrant smugglers in two separate operations in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region.
The first suspect coming from Syria was accused of smuggling 34 migrants and the other is a Pakistani citizen who was traveling with another person who did not have the required documentation.
