Italy asks for extradition of two Maltese

Italian police are requesting the extradition of two Maltese men and a Turk after busting a ring that had been organising clandestine immigration between Turkey and Italy via Malta, La Sicilia reported yesterday.

The Sicilian newspaper said arrest warrants have been issued for two Maltese, identified as B.Y., aged 59 and B.J., 42, and a Turk, F.T., 52.

Contacted yesterday, Maltese police sources said they had not yet received any information about the warrants but these invariably took some time to arrive because of the bureaucracy involved.

La Sicilia said the two Maltese had already been involved in a previous inquiry related to illegal immigration that took place in July, 2001, when five illegal immigrants had drowned.

The Italian police told the Sicilian newspaper that their investigations, surveillance and telephone interceptions had provided an insight into how the ring operated.

The police estimate that two to three trips a week were being run.

The immigrants were 'recruited' from Istanbul and flown to Malta, where they were initially lodged at a hotel in Paceville. They were then transferred to private houses before their departure to Sicily on high powered speedboats, which do the trip in about 45 minutes.

The immigrants were met on beaches in Syracuse by two Tunisians, Sadok Bouhnimi, 43, and Maktouf Farkat, 34, both residents of Santa Croce, Camerina. Both have been arrested by Italian police.

The Italian police claim that the two Tunisians, who work for agricultural companies, were paid to meet and accommodate the illegal immigrants until they moved into Italy.

The Tunisians used torches to signal the Maltese powerboat operators. After they landed, the immigrants were taken to shacks from where they continued their trip overland, with most of them aiming to eventually make it to Germany.

Turkish passports used by the illegal immigrants were found in one of the shacks used to house the immigrants.

In the 2001 case over which the two Maltese were investigated, immigrants had drowned after they were forced off a Maltese powerboat some 100 metres offshore even though they could not swim. One was reportedly hit with an oar or spade on his head.

Ragusa's top police official, Carmelo Casabona, and other Italian police had visited Malta twice to meet local police and exchange information about that case.