Interpol has announced the arrest of 262 suspects during an international operation targeting people-smuggling networks along routes across the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of West Africa. Operation Communis Maris was carried out between 5 and 8 October with the participation of law-enforcement agencies from 16 countries.
The operation identified 41 organised criminal groups, while 434 new investigations were launched in the countries involved. Of those arrested, 221 are suspected of people smuggling, 16 of human trafficking and 25 of other offences, including the production and use of forged documents.
According to Interpol, 109 potential victims of human trafficking were identified, while the authorities detected 1,715 migrants who were residing or travelling illegally. A total of 7,660 officers took part in the operation and checked more than 378,000 people. They also conducted 210,594 searches in the databases of the international police organisation.
Boats carrying dozens of passengers intercepted
Off Morocco’s southern coast, the authorities stopped a boat carrying 70 people, including 30 minors. According to Interpol, they had been at sea for six days.
In another case, Senegalese authorities reported a boat that had left the country’s territorial waters. It was intercepted off Mauritania the following day. The wooden boat was carrying 80 passengers, including two children, and three suspected organisers were arrested.
In Libya, 34 potential victims of human trafficking were rescued. Three people were detained there on suspicion of being members of an organised criminal group involved in human trafficking, people smuggling and extortion.
Checks for forged documents and money laundering
Investigations were carried out not only along maritime routes. In Cyprus and Greece, people were arrested while attempting to use forged identity documents. In Morocco, a suspect was detained for supplying forged passports and recruiting people for illegal migration.
In France, police arrested six people on suspicion of money laundering, facilitating illegal migration and housing a vulnerable person in conditions incompatible with human dignity.
“Traffickers exploit vulnerable people, often subjecting them to violence, extortion and human trafficking, while endangering their lives with overloaded and unseaworthy vessels,” said David Counther, director of Interpol’s Organised and Emerging Crime unit.
The operation was coordinated by Interpol with the operational support of Europol, Frontex, Afripol, the International Organization for Migration and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Interpol said the data collected and the new investigations could lead to further arrests in the coming weeks and months.
Sources: efe.com, noticias.uol.com.br, focus-news.net