Immigrant smuggling racket smashed

Italian, French and British police have smashed an international people smuggling ring that flooded Europe with thousands of illegal immigrants in recent years, police officials said yesterday.

Police detained 53 people in raids across five countries this week and are searching for at least 40 other suspects in connection with the cross-border investigation.

"It's the largest operation of this type ever organised in a coordinated way in Europe," Paris prosecutor Jean-Claude Marin told a news conference in the French capital.

At a separate news conference in Rome, Italian police said the network primarily dealt with Iraqi Kurds, who paid between $7,500-$15,000 each for safe passage.

Many of the Kurds were brought to Rome via Turkey and Greece, sometimes hidden in the back of lorries and caravans, and then transported north, especially to France and Britain.

The operation was run by a 30-year-old Iraqi Kurd arrested in Rome, who was named as Ali Ako and nicknamed Arsalan, the Italian police said.

"He managed the global strategy of the entire organisation from the (Italian) capital," an Italian statement said. "The immigrants and their families... were forced to pay huge sums to get to Europe, or, in rare cases, North America."

French police said many of the immigrants were taken to the northern French port of Calais where they would be met by people who were trained to sneak them into Britain.

British Immigration Minister Tony McNulty hailed the three-nation police probe.

"The disruption of this illegal immigration network is another excellent example of the close cooperation between the UK authorities and our EU counterparts," he said.

"The Home Office is committed to taking robust action against those involved in the facilitation of illegal entry and the distress it causes," he added.

British police have arrested seven people in connection with the case. The French held 22 people, Italy 18, and Turkey and Greece three each.

Tens of thousands of illegal immigrants arrive in Italy each year, many on overcrowded boats that set sail from North African countries, especially Libya.

Rome sends some of the new arrivals back to Libya, but the majority manage to escape deportation and either look for work in Italy or else seek out family and friends elsewhere in the European Union.

Meanwhile, 35 immigrants were detained by Spanish police off Fuerteventura, one of Spain's Canary Islands, while trying to reach European soil from Africa on a makeshift boat.