ROME, July 6 (UPI) -- At least 18 suspects in a Europe-wide human trafficking network were arrested Wednesday, Italian police said.
The arrests, ranging from Lombardy in the north to Calabria in the south, were the culmination of a 14-month investigation by national and local law enforcement, ANSA reported.
"Today's operation has exposed a substantial trafficking of illegal immigrants. In a year of investigations in Salento (province) we have intercepted more than 5,000 immigrants," said Vincenzo Carella, police commissioner in the southern city of Lecce.
The ring, based in Greece and Turkey, transported thousands of migrants, most of Afghan, Iraqi, Pakistani and Indian origin, through Italian cities including Rome, Milan, Bologna and Bari, authorities said.
Many of the immigrants were brought in along the Adriatic coast of Puglia and kept "in constant fear for their lives," police said. They were sent to Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, Austria, France and Belgium, aided by fake residency and work papers.
