People trafficking: how smugglers operate

Five more people have been arrested for smuggling migrants from Libya.

One of them has repented and confessed, blaming the others: "We Senegalese are capable of operating dinghies, while the Gambians take care of the compass and the satellite phone."

A few hours later also the other four confessed, providing a detailed description of the smuggling scheme.

The boats with the migrants were first located by a German ship on Friday and by an Italian military ship on Saturday. A total of 398 people were saved, and the five smugglers arrested.

The cooperating smugglers reported to the Criminal Investigation Department that the Libyans, organizing the trafficking, use Senegalese fishermen since they are very good at sailing, but, as these people are not comfortable with compasses or satellite phones, they also hire Gambians, so as to avoid any risks.

Even in this case the police has ascertained that Libyan traffickers make thousands of dollars for each dinghy. Considering all the boats rescued so far, they derive hundreds of thousands of dollars from smuggling migrants.

The police in Ragusa arrested around 200 smugglers last year, and already 32 in 2015.

Italian version