The State Police, in close connection with the International Police Cooperation Service, at the outcome of targeted research on the national territory, executed a provisional arrest for foreign purposes issued by the Pakistani judicial authority against three citizens of that country, investigated for aiding and abetting illegal immigration. The measures were validated by the short appeal with the coordination of the competent general prosecutors.
The operation, carried out by the investigators of the Central Operational Service and the Mobile Teams of Turin, Catanzaro and Brescia, simultaneously affected the aforementioned provinces, where the subjects were located, arrested and placed at the disposal of the Italian judicial authority for carrying out the extraordinary procedure. During the investigation, the involvement of the arrested in the trafficking of migrants who started from Pakistan emerged, were made to pass by Libya, on the route of the central Mediterranean, to make illegal entry into the European Union, in particular from the Italian and Greek coasts.
The Pakistani criminal association would also be connected to two serious episodes of shipwreck. The first would take place in February 2023 off the Libyan coast, when an iron boat completely without rescue and safety devices, directed towards Italy, would have overturned due to the adverse weather conditions. The second would take place in June 2023 in waters Sar Greek. In that case, the boat, as part of a trip organized by the investigated group, including the three arrested, would have started from Libya on 18 June 2023 and would have overturned off the Hellenic coasts of Pylos (Gre), causing the death of numerous Pakistani citizens. During the investigation, moreover, the ability of the criminal group and the three suspects arrested would also emerge, to procure working visas in the absence of the requirements provided for by law, therefore in violation of the so -called “Flow Decree”, for the citizens of Pakistani illegally entered the European Union.