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01 March 2021 Money in exchange for the transshipment, on 11 September 2020, of 27 migrants from the Danish ship Maersk Etienne, which had rescued them 37 days earlier, on the Ionian Sea operating on behalf of the Mediterranean Saving humans-aps. 



This is the hypothesis of the Public Prosecutor of Ragusa as part of the investigation into crimes of aiding illegal immigration and violation of the rules of the navigation code, with which it ordered searches in Trieste, Venice, Palermo, Bologna, Lapedona (Fm ), Mazara del Vallo (Tp), Montedinove (Ap) and Augusta (Sr).

Four - for now - the persons under investigation, including shareholders, employees or administrators, in fact or by law, of the company that owns and operates the tugboat Mare Jonio. 



The most serious dispute raised by the Public Prosecutor of Ragusa concerns the transhipment "carried out only after the conclusion of a commercial agreement between the owners of the two ships, an agreement by virtue of which the shipping company of the Ionian Sea received a large sum as consideration for the service rendered ".  



The investigations were entrusted to an inter-force group composed of soldiers from the Pef nucleus of the Guardia di Finanza of Ragusa and policemen from the Mobile Squad of the police headquarters of the Hyblaean capital and by personnel of the naval operational section of the Fiamme Gialle of Pozzallo and the Port Authority - Coast Guard of Pozzallo. 



And again for the Ragusa prosecutor's office, on the basis of investigations "carried out up to now, corroborated by telephone wiretapping, financial investigations and documentary evidence", it emerged that the transshipment of migrants carried out by the crew of the Mere Jonio "would have occurred" without any preventive connection with the Maltese authorities, competent for the SAR event, or with the Italian ones and apparently justified by an emergency health situation, "documented" by a medical report drawn up by the team of rescuers illegally embarked on board the tug ".   



The investigative team is executing a decree of personal and local search and seizure aimed at "searching and acquiring any documentary element and / or electronic support useful to prove the relationship between the suspects and between them and the Danish shipping company of Maersk Etienne, as well as any other shipping companies ".