Migrant trafficking, organization dismantled between Algeria, Sardinia, and Marseille

The powerful inflatable boats were supposed to transport irregular migrants in a triangle connecting Algeria, Sardinia, and France. The Dda of Cagliari and the State Police dismantled a transnational organization that led to the arrest of 8 foreigners. This is the outcome of the operation named Phantom conducted by the Central Operational Service of the Central Anti-Crime Directorate of the State Police and the Mobile Squad of Cagliari, with the support of Sisco, under the direction of the District Anti-Mafia Directorate.

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The investigation takes its name from the powerful high-performance inflatable boats, called “Phantom,” that the organization was supposed to use to transport, across the Mediterranean, both irregular migrants and large quantities of narcotics. According to the evidence gathered during the investigation started in February, at the top of the organization was an Algerian asylum seeker, recently settled in the Cagliari area. “The man – the State Police reconstructs in a statement – would have managed the recruitment of migrants and traffickers in Algeria, the collection of the money necessary for the crossing, and the organization of clandestine trips to the coasts of Sardinia through dangerous boats and the alleged corruption of local authorities to facilitate departures.”

The investigations would have made it possible to reconstruct “a consolidated axis between El Kala in Algeria, Cagliari, and Marseille, along which the main operational routes of the organization developed.” Specifically, in Algeria migrants were recruited, departures organized, and logistics for the crossings arranged. In Sardinia, there was the structure responsible for reception, preparation of forged documents, and operational support to associates. “In the Marseille area – the Police further reconstruct – one of the main financiers of the organization operated, considered the contact for obtaining economic resources and high-performance naval means, particularly the fast inflatable boats intended both for the clandestine transport of migrants and the planned international drug trafficking.”

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The investigations made it possible to reconstruct “at least five clandestine crossings departing from the Algerian city of El Kala and heading towards the southern coasts of Sardinia, identifying the alleged traffickers employed.”

For the investigators, however, the horizon was one of growth. “The organization had in fact acquired powerful inflatable boats equipped with high-power engines and planned to inaugurate a new and more profitable human trafficking route: departing from the Sardinian coasts, reaching the Tunisian island of La Galite – the investigators further reconstruct -, boarding groups of migrants and quickly bringing them back to Sardinia through very fast crossings. An operational model that would have allowed multiplying the number of trips and, consequently, the profits of the organization, considering that each migrant would have paid the criminal organizations an estimated sum of around 2,500 euros to reach Italian territory.”

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