Agrigento: Facilitating illegal immigration, Egyptian smuggler arrested

Following a complex investigation activity coordinated by the Public Prosecutor's Office of Agrigento, the State Police of Agrigento, Central Operations Service, SISCO of Palermo - the Guardia di Finanza - Naval Operations Section of Lampedusa - and the Coast Guard of Lampedusa have executed the order for the application of the precautionary measure of custody in prison, issued by the Judge for Preliminary Investigations of the Court of Agrigento, against an Egyptian held responsible for the crimes of aiding illegal immigration and resisting a public official.

The arrested man is accused of having transported forty-seven migrants inside a wooden boat just 10 meters long, in precarious conditions of buoyancy and unsuitable for the crossing, thus exposing them to danger for their lives and safety.

Furthermore, the rescue operations were made difficult by the behavior of the trafficker who did not comply with the order to stop navigation given by the naval unit of the Guardia di Finanza, pouring a can of gasoline on himself, on the vessel and on the migrants, in order to hinder the rescue operations by the personnel operating, also threatening the financial policeman that, if he did not move away, he would set everyone on fire.

The information collected on the suspect, identified by several migrants during the interrogations carried out in the presence of the defense lawyer to the police officers of the Flying Squad, the Guardia di Finanza and the Coast Guard, summarizes an evidentiary framework that led to the contestation of the crime under art. 12 of Legislative Decree 286/98, with the aggravating circumstances of having procured the entry into the national territory of more than 5 people, of having exposed them to danger for their life or safety and of having acted for the purpose of gaining profit, as well as the crime of resisting a public official for having hindered the rescue operations.

The suspect was taken to the Agrigento prison.