“Just recently we arrested four,” Ostuni added, taking stock of police activities to combat the crime of aiding and abetting irregular immigration along the Balkan route leading from Greece to northern Europe.
“It is an activity we believe in a lot,” he continued.
“2022 was certainly a very busy year and these first months of 2023 have been equally so,” Ostuni said, commenting on arrivals to Italy across the northeast border with Slovenia.
Last week investigators in Trieste said they had dismantled an international migrant smuggling network that reportedly beat migrants to make them walk and gave sleeping tablets to children to stop them from crying and being noticed.
The probe, which began in early 2022, documented 32 episodes each involving dozens of migrants and refugees travelling along the Balkan route.
The alleged smugglers accompanied groups on foot through the woods from the Slovenia-Croatia border to Pomjan in Slovenia, from where they boarded vehicles to Trieste.
Each person allegedly paid up to 250 euro for the passage.
Thirteen people from Albania and Kosovo but living in Trieste have been arrested in relation to the probe and in total around 30 people have been placed under investigation.
The suspects face a number of possible charges including aiding and abetting illegal immigration and criminal association.
ANSA
