Ventimiglia (Imperia), fight against illegal immigration: 13 "passeurs" arrested.
TheState Police operation called "PANTOGRAPH", which began in the early hours of today and was conducted by the Border Police Sector of Ventimiglia, which led to the arrest of 13 passers-by.
With an impressive device enhanced with personnel from the assigned departments and reinforcement personnel made available by the 1st Border Police Zone of Turin, with the presence of French police personnel as observers and with the aid of a helicopter and a he dog unit of the State Police, a criminal network dedicated to aiding and abetting illegal immigration was dismantled, bringing numerous "passeurs" to justice.
An Italy-France team
On 28 June 2022, the Agreement was signed for the establishment of a JOINT INVESTIGATIVE TEAM (JIT) between the Public Prosecutor's Offices of Imperia and Nice (F), in order to facilitate judicial cooperation in the context of a joint investigation into a network of passeur, operating in Italy to ensure the passage to France - through the railway network - of foreigners in an irregular situation, hiding them inside the train carriages, or in the toilets, in the electrotechnical cabinets, in the driving cabins, in the bellows of connection but also on the roof of the rolling stock, near the electric pantograph.
The agreement establishing the JIT, stipulated for a duration of 6 months, made it possible to combine the pre-existing investigation activities relating to criminal proceedings opened in the Courts of Nice and Imperia, bringing together all the investigative findings concerning the aforementioned network in the respective files , made up of citizens originating from West Africa and in particular from the Ivory Coast, Guinea and Mali, dedicated to aiding illegal immigration in Ventimiglia.
Fight against smugglers
The investigative activities carried out by the personnel of the PG Team of the Ventimiglia Sector have made it possible to acquire considerable evidence against 20 subjects, through information-investigative exchanges, targeted observation-control-following services and joint patrols, also carried out with the with the help of their French counterparts, as well as through technical telephone and telematic interception activities, authorized by the Judicial Authority.
At the end of the investigations, measures were requested against the 20 suspects and the Imperia Prosecutor's Office issued 16 arrests of the suspects as well as a precautionary custody order in prison, given the concrete risk of escape.
The criminal network had ensured that thousands of migrants illegally crossed the Italian-French border via the motorway, both through its own drivers and by hiding the migrants in trailers of heavy vehicles without the drivers' knowledge, for a turnover estimated at over one million EUR. As part of this operation, 31 people were arrested for aiding and abetting illegal immigration, of which 7 in Italy and the remainder in French territory during joint Italian-French services.
A lasting collaboration
It is the second JOINT INVESTIGATIVE TEAM that the Italian and French judicial authorities set up in order to jointly fight against the phenomenon of illegal immigration in this border area, also in order to avoid dramatic events such as the countless deaths of migrants due to electrocution, which occurred on the Ventimiglia-Mentone railway line.
The previous JOINT INVESTIGATIVE TEAM had been established in September 2020, in order to dismantle three criminal organizations of Afghan, Pakistani and North African origin, operating continuously in the Ventimiglia area.
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