Palermo: They imprison and torture migrants before making them undertake the sea crossing, a detention order on suspicion of crime was executed against 2 brothers

The State Police, specifically the Flying Squads of Palermo and Agrigento, as well as the local branch of the Central Operations Service, on delegation of the District Anti-Mafia Directorate, has an arrest warrant was executed against two Bangladeshi brothers who are believed to be responsible, along with other suspects currently being identified, for criminal association aimed at aiding and abetting illegal immigration in an aggravated form. The restrictive measure was adopted within the framework of a complex investigative activity, initiated by the aforementioned Investigative Offices and coordinated by the District Anti-Mafia Directorate of Palermo, concerning an alleged transnational criminal association dedicated to the trafficking of migrants, mainly of Bangladeshi nationality.

The partnership, with ramifications in Bangladesh and Italy, he availed himself of the operational support of some traffickers based in Libya as managers of safe houses, where migrants are detained and tortured in order to obtain sums of money that the relatives of the prisoners pay as the price of the release of their relatives, to allow them to undertake the sea crossing to the Sicilian coast. In this context the serious responsibilities of one of the two Bengali brothers, who directed and promoted the association by organizing, in a serial manner and for profit, the journey from Bangladesh to Libya and from Libya to Italy, of an indefinite number of his compatriots, who arrived in Lampedusa starting from 2020.

During the investigative investigations it was found that the suspect's older brother, recipient of the same detention order, in August 2022 collaborated with the criminal organization directed by his relative, facilitating the irregular entry of at least five migrants, who departed by plane from Dhaka, made a first stop in Dubai, then in Syria, until arriving at the airport in Benghazi. According to the testimonies given by the victims, They remained in Libya for over a month, confined inside a prison camp under the constant threat of traffickers, deprived even of the basic means of subsistence.

Furthermore, during the same investigative investigations it was ascertained that: that the cost of a single trip to Italy amounts to approximately 11.000 euros, a price that migrants pay in several installments, the first, of about 6 thousand euros, is delivered directly to the family members of the two suspects in Dhaka, the rest, instead, is paid to the members of the criminal gang present in the transit cities. In this broad investigative framework, it was the aforementioned restrictive measure was carried out, together with Border Police personnel, at Rome Fiumicino airport, where the brother had gone to receive his relative who had returned to the national territory on a flight from Bangladesh.