Italian police have broken up a gang of Tunisian and Italian smugglers who planned to take a terrorist suspect from Tunisia to Italy on a speedboat.
Investigators ordered the arrest of 15 gang members who regularly ferried more than a dozen migrants at a time in inflatables able to reach 56mph and make the crossing in three and a half hours. Police pounced after wiretaps revealed the plot. “[The unnamed man] was wanted in Tunisia for terrorism and was afraid of being turned back if he tried to enter Italy through legal channels,” said one investigator.
“This was a real shuttle service, with the passengers given food and clothing when they arrived at secluded beaches in southern Italy,” he added.
Migrants paid up to €3,000 for the passage, far more than the hundreds of euros migrants in Libya pay to sail on packed dinghies which barely make it out of coastal waters before they sink.
The Italian authorities have played down the risk of terrorists mixing with migrants to cross from Libya, claiming that it is too dangerous, suggesting that the Tunisian speedboats were becoming a viable alternative.
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Police described the speedboat skippers as skilled veterans who dropped their passengers off in the shallows where they waded ashore and were met by other gang members who took the migrants to secret locations.
Designed to outpace local coast guards, the speedboats were powered by twin outboard engines.
Police said that five trips had been made before the round-up, which was launched after airborne police tracked the boats with infrared cameras.
Ten cars and two fast vessels were seized during the police operation, which also targeted the sophisticated system the gang used to launder its profits in Italy.
As well as loading well-heeled migrants aboard, the smugglers filled the holds of their boats with cheap cigarettes which were sold in street markets for €3 a packet.
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Each trip could generate €40,000 in profits for the gang even after the skipper was paid €5,000 and the navigator €3,000 per trip, police said.