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Operation against illegal immigration in Palermo, The police carried out the arrest of 14 foreigners accused of being part of a transnational criminal association. There are currently four suspects in hiding.
The gang is accused of aiding and inciting illegal immigration, the exercise of abusive activity in the provision of paid services and other crimes against the person, public order, property and public faith; crimes aggravated by transnationality.
The investigation, carried out by the Palermo mobile team and the central operational service and coordinated by the Palermo prosecutor Francesco Lo Voi, the deputy prosecutor Marzia Sabella and the prosecutors Gery Ferrara, Claudio Camilleri and Giorgia Righi, led to the discovery of an organization . criminal, with cells operating in Africa, in various areas of the national territory and in other European countries. The association acted on two different fronts: the facilitation of illegal immigration and the abusive exercise of financial intermediation activities through the method known as “hawala”, used mainly to pay for migrants’ trips or as a price for their departure. of the centers. lager in Libya.
The investigation constitutes the continuation of the operations “Glauco I – II – III” carried out between 2013 and 2017, which eventually made it possible to identify and identify dozens of human traffickers operating on the central Mediterranean route, many of whom have already been sentenced to severe penalties, and their contacts in Italy. Already in the course of the previous investigations, the protagonism of Ghermay Ermias emerged – still a fugitive – and precisely from the development of the investigations aimed at his investigation, also through international cooperation activities, the criminal association that operated between the Center was rebuilt. Africa (Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan), the Maghreb countries (especially Libya), Italy (Lampedusa, Agrigento, Catania, Rome, Udine, Milan), several northern European countries (England, Denmark, Holland, Belgium and Germany) .
Fake documents and hiding places, routes from northern Europe to the US. Since 2017, the gang has supported smuggling activities both during migrant travel on the African continent and during their concentration in prison camps in Libya. As soon as they arrived in Sicily, on board the boats used for rescue activities at sea, the suspects intervened, at first, allowing the refugees to move away from the reception centers where they were staying, hiding them in other places and providing them in some cases. food, accommodation, travel documents and false documents and, at a later stage, arrange their departure to places in central and northern Italy, from where they can reach northern Europe and sometimes the United States. On other occasions, the group members contacted migrants who had already arrived in Italy directly to allow them to continue their journey to other European states or in some cases even to the United States (managing the dangerous journey through the countries of South America). ). The repeated activities to facilitate illegal immigration were paid for by the migrants themselves or by their family and friends, often residing abroad, who sent the money requested by the traffickers using the “hawala” trust system (which allows money to illegally transferred using a network of intermediaries operating around the world).
Torture in Libya and Sudan. “Bad cooperation between countries”. Another relevant aspect that arose from the operation coordinated by the Palermo DDA, against a gang of migrant smugglers, are the numerous contacts found between foreign suspects and the subjects present in the ‘safe houses’ in Libya: the living conditions, but above all, the physical and psychological violence and torture suffered and inflicted by traffickers to obtain payment from relatives for the release or the continuation of the trip. “Evidence was collected, both from the statements and from the technical interception activities against numerous human smugglers, operating in Libya and Sudan and the direct administrators of some safe houses, unfortunately – it is the regret of the investigators – not fully identified despite requests for international cooperation in this regard and on which identification investigations are still ongoing. “
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