5 people arrested for smuggling migrants into Europe by private plane
Italian police said on Wednesday that five people had been arrested in Rome and Brussels on charges of smuggling migrants from Turkey to western Europe by private plane, via flights costing about ten thousand euros (ten thousand dollars).
The police said in a statement that the suspects, who are being held on the basis of arrest warrants issued by the Belgian authorities, are accused of joining a criminal organization aiming to assist in illegal immigration.
The statement added that they were giving the migrants false diplomatic identity papers and boarding them on a plane bound for a Caribbean country, on a trip that includes a stopover in Europe.
Italian police added that the migrants were disembarking from the plane, revealing their true identity and seeking asylum.
According to investigators who documented five separate landings in Italy, Germany, France, Austria and Belgium between October and December of 2020, each migrant paid around 10,000 euros for the trip.
The suspects were arrested after joint investigations by police in the five European countries, with the help of US authorities and the European Union's Europol and Eurojust agencies.
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