Crammed 40 at a time into each van, paying a thousand euros per person to reach France — a true journey of suffering. Prosecutor Boccassini: “It's the globalisation of evil”.
It took two years of investigation by the mobile squad in Cremona to bring down a human trafficking organisation operating at an international level. The last episode, the decisive one, was the discovery (filmed by police) of a van literally packed with migrants, heading towards the French border at Ventimiglia with the aim of continuing the journey towards northern Europe.
Thirty-four arrest warrants were issued and 18 arrests were made across Italy: from the Ventimiglia border to Reggio Calabria, from Milan to Sicily, passing through Tuscany and Emilia Romagna. A wide and far-reaching criminal association that, in exchange for payment, facilitated the entry of non-EU nationals from Syria, Egypt, Eritrea and Sudan. The organisation, which operated mainly between Ventimiglia and Nice, was based in Milan and was made up of North African, Afghan, Sudanese and Albanian nationals, many of whom held valid residence permits, and to a lesser extent Romanian and Italian nationals.
Ilda Boccassini, head of the Milan Prosecutor's Office, explained that "the journeys could cost between 500 and a thousand euros from Sicily to France, or around a hundred euros to cross the Italian border. We have documented 62 journeys; in some cases at Ventimiglia we stopped vans with 40 people crammed inside in inhuman conditions — there were children among them too. The suffering that these people are willing to accept in order to realise the dream of a better life must make us reflect. How fortunate to have been born in the right place at the right time." She added that "we are facing a globalisation of evil."
Three Italians aged around 35 are also involved in the criminal organisation; they handled transport by car from Ventimiglia. Through their contacts with people smugglers, the other members of the organisation were able to find out about landings that were due to take place on the coasts of Sicily or Puglia, after which they directed the refugees towards Milan, which the refugees reached by coach, train or as part of the organised transport arrangements for placing them in reception facilities. Once in Milan, the foreign nationals were approached at Central Station and in the vicinity of reception facilities, in order to arrange journeys aimed at crossing the Italian border to reach their desired destinations in northern Europe. The journeys almost always took place at night, by car, van or lorry, inside which migrants were often crammed like cargo — packed into wooden crates or car boots, or dozens at a time squeezed into small vans.
