Eleven Tunisians and seven Italians affected by precautionary measures for criminal association aimed at aiding illegal immigration.
According to what emerged from the "Open sea" operation of the Caltanissetta police, they would have organized and guided departures from the port of Gela or from the coasts of Agrigento to reach Tunisia and immediately return with a "load" of migrants.
The investigating judge of Caltanissetta has ordered prison for 12 suspects and house arrest for the other six.
Six of the 18 recipients of the measure are still untraceable , probably because they are abroad. A suspect was identified in Ferrara thanks to the collaboration of the local mobile squad, one was already in prison for crimes of the same type, a Tunisian, released from prison a few days ago, was in the CPR of "Ponte Galeria" in Rome, waiting to be returnee. The others were arrested in Sicily: eight in Caltanissetta and one in Ragusa.
The investigation was launched on February 21, 2019 when a 10-meter fiberglass boat with two 200-horsepower engines ran aground at the entrance to the port of Gela . The mobile team of the Caltanissetta Police Headquarters discovered that the vessel had been stolen in Catania a few days earlier and that dozens of people presumably of North African origin had disembarked . The police managed to trace a couple of Tunisian origins who, according to the indictment, favored the irregular entry of migrants into Italian territory.
As regards the suspects, according to the reconstruction of the Caltanissetta prosecutor's office, "there are serious indications of participation in a criminal organization dedicated to aiding and abetting aggravated illegal immigration" and which had a "transnational character as it operated in several states".
The aggravating circumstance of having exposed migrants to serious danger of life and having subjected them to inhuman and degrading treatment was also contested.
The band, which would have had strategic points located in several centers of the island, such as Scicli, Catania and Mazara del Vallo, according to the investigators made use of small boats, equipped with powerful outboard motors, led by expert smugglers who would have operated in the arm of sea between the Tunisian cities of Al Haouaria, Dar Allouche and Korba and the provinces of Caltanissetta, Trapani and Agrigento, so as to reach the Italian coasts in less than 4 hours.
From 10 to 30 people at a time were transported on the boats: the price per person, paid in cash in Tunisia before departure, was between 3,000 and 5,000 euros, a total for smugglers between 30,000 and 70,000 euros for each trip. If there were problems, such as an engine failure, the smugglers could "get rid of the migrants on the high seas" . It was the indication given by the organizers of the trips, according to what emerges from wiretaps in the records of the investigation.
(Unioneonline/D)