Italian police arrested three Afghanis - two in their twenties and one in his thirties - who were irregular migrants in Italy and allegedly kidnapped and beat migrants in Ventimiglia. The men are accused of aggravated kidnapping and injuries.
Police began their investigation after a report was made by two Pakistanis who had been assaulted in via Tenda. They told the officers they had been deceived by two foreigners who had promised to bring them to France if they each paid 200 euros. The two men immediately accepted the offer, but after walking a few hundred metres along the railroad tracks up to via Tenda, in an isolated and dark area, they said they were threatened with a knife and glass bottle shards and then beaten. One of the men was treated in hospital and released with a prognosis of five days for full recovery.
Thousands of euros and cell phones from robberies
The three Afghanis had 1,500 euros, four cell phones, and a suitcase with clothing and personal effects. One of them had taken a vest from one of the two Pakistani men. During the investigation, police looked at surveillance camera footage and were able to slowly piece together the identities of the three Afghani men, who were identified in some mugshots.Once investigators felt certain they had identified the correct individuals, they began searching for them and then arrested them.
Carabinieri arrest smuggler in Basovizza
On 23 October, Carabinieri from the Basovizza police station in Trieste arrested a Croatian citizen accused of facilitating illegal immigration. The man was driving a large van with about 15 foreigners aboard. He had driven into a forested area and reached an isolated point where he dropped off the migrants, but residents saw what happened and called police.
Shortly thereafter, more calls came into authorities with reports of migrants walking towards state road 14. A police patrol from the Basovizza Carabinieri station identified the road the van had taken and found the smuggler within minutes, still attempting to turn around to go back on the state road. The police blocked the van's access to the road and stopped the van, identifying the driver as a 23-year-old Croatian citizen. With back-up officers from Aurisina and Barcola, police were also able to intercept the migrants who had been traveling with the smuggler. There were 14 in all, identified as Kurdish and Iraqi Turks.