Italy smashes cross-border migrant smuggling ring

By FRANCES D’EMILIO
Associated Press

ROME (AP) — Italian police say they have arrested 29 people and smashed a transnational operation that brought migrants illegally into Italy by sea and then smuggled them in vehicles into northern Europe. The investigation was led by prosecutors in Calabria, the “toe” of the Italian peninsula, where many of the migrants arrive, often on sailboats that elude detection, from Turkey and Greece. Depending on how much the migrants can pay, the passengers then continue to northern Europe either by truck, train or taxi. Police said colleagues in Turkey, Greece, Belgium, Germany, Sweden, Britain and Morocco collaborated in the investigation that led to the arrest Wednesday of 29 foreigners.