Hundreds of migrant smugglers arrested between Africa and Europe after four-day operation

More than 260 people were arrested and 41 criminal networks of migrant smugglers between Africa and Europe were spotted in a four-day operation involving police from sixteen countries, Interpol announced on Tuesday.

Operation Communis Maris (Common Sea in Latin), carried out from October 5 to 8, notably enabled the arrest of 221 suspected smugglers, but also counterfeiters, specifies in a press release the international criminal police organization whose headquarters is in Lyon (central-eastern France).

This hunt, involving the police of 16 countries in West and North Africa, Europe and the Middle East, revealed the existence of “41 criminal organizations” and launched “434 new investigations” in the countries concerned, specifies Interpol which coordinated, from Athens, this vast operation financed by the European Union.

Thousands of people have died or disappeared at sea in recent years trying to reach Europe across the Mediterranean or across the Atlantic coast of Africa, to flee conflicts, authoritarian regimes or the economic conditions of life in their countries.

“Smugglers exploit vulnerable populations, often subjecting them to violence, extortion and human trafficking,” “by putting them on overloaded and unseaworthy vessels,” laments David Caunter, head of Interpol’s Organized Crime and New Forms of Crime Directorate.

Several boats which put lives at risk were intercepted at sea during Operation Communis Maris. Thus, off the coast of Morocco, a boat at sea for six days with 70 people including 30 minors. Or a wooden canoe that left Senegal and was boarded off the coast of Mauritania with 80 passengers.

Checks at airports have also made it possible, particularly in Cyprus and Greece, to arrest migrants presenting falsified identity documents, according to Interpol.

In France, the police arrested six people suspected of organizing the passage of illegal migrants, of laundering money obtained from this trafficking and of housing victims in “conditions that undermine human dignity”.

In total, 7,660 officials from the authorities of Algeria, Cyprus, France, Gambia, Greece, Italy, Libya, Malta, Mauritania, Morocco, Portugal, Senegal, Spain, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey checked more than 378,000 people, monitored the sensitive departure points of migratory routes and exploited the leads of various investigations, explains Interpol.