Several arrests were made in Morocco and Melilla to dismantle a migrant smuggling network, run by Moroccans and Spaniards, for a price ranging from 500 to 4,000 euros.
Local police in Melilla made three arrests, while another individual was arrested in Morocco, according to Spanish news agency Europa Press on February 7. A fifth suspect is still being sought, reports the same source.
The organization was using a motorboat flying the Spanish flag that had been stolen from Melilla’s marina.
The boat faced great difficulty and required assistance due to weather conditions, and was intercepted on January 9, with 18 migrants on board, as well as the leader of the network, a Moroccan national.
The local Melila police spokesman said that the organization is “divided into two branches, one based in Morocco, in charge of recruiting, housing and transporting people to the embarkation point on the Moroccan coast, and another in Melilla, in charge of organizing the trip, supplying the boats and receiving the migrants once on Spanish soil.”
The migrants of different nationalities were housed in a “ranch near the city of Nador, from where they were transferred in vehicles on the morning of the trip, to a wooded area on the Moroccan coast, before being guided on foot by a miner familiar with the area, to the exact point of embarkation to Melilla.”
add your comment
Terms of publication : Not to offend the writer, people, sacred things, or attack religions or the divine self, and refrain from racist incitement and insults.