A former member of a migrant
trafficking ring under investigation by Palermo's anti-mafia
team told investigators that migrants who can't pay for passage
to Italy are sold to Egyptians who kill them and then sell their
organs.
"I was told that the people who can't pay are given to
Egyptians who kill them to take their organs and sell them in
Egypt for 15,000 dollars," the man said.
"The Egyptians come equipped to remove the organ and
transport it in insulated bags," he said.
The Palermo anti-mafia squad investigation - which on Monday
saw 38 people detained across Italy in connection with a migrant
trafficking ring operating financially from Rome - has been
going on for three years and has resulted in several
convictions.
The former member of the organisation has been cooperating
with Palermo investigators for a year and a half, providing
information about the group's operations and their management of
migrants upon arrival in Sicily through to transfer to northern
Italy and northern Europe.
Chief investigator Renato Cortese said in a press
conference on Monday that "we used the same investigative
techniques that we use in mafia investigations. It is clearly
more difficult in this case, since, for example, we need
interpreters for the wiretaps, since those under investigation
speak foreign languages or dialects.
"The aim now," he said, "is to try to understand how the
enormous earnings of the organization are re-invested."
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