On Wednesday (January 19), police in Italy, Albania and Greece arrested 30 people who are believed to have been involved in smuggling migrants and refugees into the European Union from Turkey on yachts and recreational vessels.

The suspects are believed to be involved with a larger gang that made several hundred million euros of illegal profit by picking up migrants from Turkey and bringing them to Italy, via Greece and Albania, EU law enforcement agency Europol said in a statement published on its website.

"We hope to have curbed the phenomenon, for the next few weeks or the next few months," Lt. Col. Giuseppe Giulio Leo, head of Italy’s financial police in the southern city of Lecce told the Associated Press (AP). "Still, we need to take into account that there will be someone ready to join the organization and take over the various roles."

The investigation began 18 months ago when one of the smuggling operations was busted and eight "low-level smugglers" were arrested, according to Europol.

Crackdown on one of the latest smuggling tactics

In November 2021, international news outlets including the AP reported that smugglers have been increasingly using rented sailboats and yachts to transport migrants from Turkey to Italy and northern European countries. The journey, known by aid workers as '1st class' crossing, would cost people between $6,000 to $10,000, the AP reported.

The arrested suspects are believed to be part of a wider ring with as many as 80 members that organized at least 30 smuggling operations that transported around 1,100 people by boat to the south of Italy. Their destination is typically the southern region of Puglia, the closest point, but they often wind up in Calabria due to weather, Leo told the AP.

Migrant arrivals in Calabria, located on the "toe" of boot-shaped Italy, rose almost four times in 2021, according to UNHCR from November. At that time, it accounted for 16% of all sea arrivals in Italy. Overall, arrivals by sea in Italy saw a nearly two-fold in 2021, according to UNHCR data.

An International network of smugglers

"Of the arrested persons, four are allegedly the main perpetrators, leading separate cells or groups of the network," EU crime agency Eurojust said in a press statement published on its website.

Overall, eleven people were arrested in Italy, including smugglers who navigated the vessels, some of which had been stolen, as well as Iraqi and Syrian citizens who worked out the logistics, Leo told the AP.

Two Iraqi brothers were among them, who were arrested at a residence near Venice by the Italian financial police.

Another 18 were arrested in Albania and one in Greece, Europol said.

But the head of the network is believed to be in Turkey. Italian prosecutors have already begun diplomatic communications to extend the operation in Turkey "with the hope of apprehending the presumed criminals located there," Leo told AP.

Payments were reportedly made through informal money transfer systems such as hawala, which is used by criminal gangs to move cash without leaving a track.

Police in Greece is investigating two agencies accused of processing the payments.

With AP