Police in Italy and Belgium have arrested five alleged people-smugglers who are accused of using private jets to help ferry illegal aliens from Turkey to Europe for as much as €10,000 (£8,770/$9,983) per passenger.
Italian police announced the arrests of three men, two Egyptian citizens and an Italian citizen, earlier this week on Wednesday in Rome, while two other suspected smugglers, a Tunisian woman and another Egyptian man, were arrested by police in Brussels.
Italian police chief Costantino Scudieri announced the arrests and added that two more suspects were still wanted by investigators, and that Belgian police managed to seize two private jets thought to be linked to the network’s operations, European Union-funded website InfoMigrants reports.
Investigators say that the smuggling network gave the migrants fake diplomatic passports from the Caribbean state of Saint Kitts and Nevis, then posed as wealthy travellers whose private jets were just stopping in Europe on their way to the Caribbean state. However, once landed in Europe, the migrants would get out of the plane and declare they wished to apply for asylum in Europe.
At least five such flights took place from October to December of 2020 and saw the aircraft land in Italy, France, Germany, Austria, and Belgium. Police from five countries in Europe, as well as the United States, were involved in the investigation into the smuggling network and the migrants involved are said to have mainly originated in Iraq.
While most illegals enter Europe illegally aboard more humble methods of transportation, such as rubber dinghies and crowded fishing boats, there have been prior reports of people-smugglers using more luxurious methods to sneak wealthier migrants into Europe.
Last year, it was revealed that smugglers were using pleasure yachts to smuggle illegals from Turkey to Italy, with some of the yachts involved said to have been registered in the United States and likely stolen.