Italian Police News

Italian authorities have seized a record 5.3 tonne cocaine haul being transferred between ships off the southern coast of Sicily, police said on Friday.The consignment had an estimated value of 850 million euros  ($946 million) and five people have been arrested, the Guardia di Finanza said in a statement. Police had been tracking a ship that sailed from South America and swooped in the early hours of Wednesday, when a surveillance aircraft spotted packages being thrown from its…

A Turkish cargo vessel that Italian special forces boarded after the crew detected a group of unidentified people aboard has left waters off the southern city of Naples, website MarineTraffic showed, as police continued to investigate the incident.Italian Defence Minister Guido Crosetto said on Friday that the special forces operation was launched due to the presence of about 15 migrants on board the vessel.A Turkish transport ministry statement said the Galata Seaways roll-on-roll-off vessel was sailing from the Turkish port of Yalova to Sete in France. The crew realised other people were aboard the ship late on Friday morning, it said.The crew locked themselves in the engine room and alerted maritime authorities in Turkey, who in turn contacted Italy and France.

An Italian charity ship was escorted into the port of Lampedusa by police on Tuesday after rescuing 49 Africans in the Mediterranean, with Interior Minister Matteo Salvini calling for the crew to be arrested.A judicial source said a magistrate had ordered that the boat, the Mare Jonio, be seized as an investigation is launched into allegations of aiding and abetting human trafficking.The vessel picked up the migrants, including 12 minors, on Monday after their rubber boat started to sink in the central Mediterranean…

Italian police discovered 270 kg (600 lb) of heroin hidden in a container that arrived aboard a ship from Iran, the biggest such haul for at least 20 years in Italy, police said on Thursday.The freighter had set sail from the Iranian Gulf port of Bandar Abbas and stopped off in Hamburg, Germany and Valencia, Spain before reaching the Italian port of Genoa on Oct. 17, where police discovered the heroin stashed away in a consignment of Bentonite clay.A police spokesman said investigators were not sure when or where the drugs were brought onto the ship.Police allowed a small portion of the illicit cargo to continue its planned journey by truck to the Netherlands.They tracked the vehicle as it crossed Switzerland…

Italian police said on Thursday they found 20 tonnes of hash worth as much as 200 million euros ($232 million) in the fuel tanks of a Panama-flagged ship that was stopped in international waters and escorted to Sicily.The entire 11-person crew, all from Montenegro, was arrested for international drugs trafficking, Italy's finance police said in a statement.The research and survey vessel Remus left the Canary Islands bound for Egypt and Turkey, but police surveillance showed it had turned off its position transmitter near the coast of North Africa, raising investigators' suspicions.With the permission of Panamanian authorities, Italian finance police seized the vessel in international waters on July 31 and escorted it to Palermo.

Italian police found more than 20 tonnes of hashish with an estimated street value of 200 million euros ($230 million) hidden in the hull of a cargo ship, a statement said on Friday. Acting on a tip, finance police -- who help oversee border security -- boarded the ship at sea and diverted it to the port of Cagliari in Sardinia, where they spent more than 18 days searching before finally finding the drugs, according to a statement. During the search, police used cranes to move enormous blocks of granite carried by the Jupiter cargo ship, which is registered in the Cook Islands. They eventually found 821 packages of hashish weighing a total of 20.5 tonnes in a ballast tank in the bow of the ship. The ship's captain and nine crew members, all Syrian, were arrested, the statement said.

An Italian judge on Friday ordered that the presumed captain of a migrant boat that sank with the loss of more than 700 lives should remain in custody after prosecutors asked for him to be charged with multiple homicide and people-trafficking. Mohammed Alì Malek, 27, denies that he was in charge of the heavily overloaded fishing boat that capsized off Libya late on Saturday with hundreds of African and Bangladeshi migrants locked in its lower decks. "He says he's a migrant like all the others and he paid his fare to go on the boat," his lawyer, Massimo Ferrante, said outside the courtroom. However Catania chief prosecutor Giovanni Salvi said the judge had ordered both Malek and 25 year-old Syrian Mahmud Bikhit, who is accused of being a member of the crew, to be detained in custody.

Italian police arrested 15 African men suspected of throwing about a dozen Christians from a migrant boat in the Mediterranean on Thursday, as the crisis off southern Italy intensified. Forty-one more deaths were reported in a separate incident. Police in the Sicilian capital Palermo said they had arrested the men, from Ivory Coast, Mali and Senegal, after survivors reported they had thrown 12 people from Nigeria and Ghana to their deaths and threatened other Christians. The 15 were arrested on charges of multiple homicide motivated by religious hatred. "The motive for the resentment was traced to their faiths," police said. The survivors' account underscores the rising chaos in the Mediterranean…

Italian police have detained five people in an operation in Agrigento, Catania, Milano, Rome and Turin in a probe into the October 3, 2013 migrant boat disaster off Lampedusa that killed 366 people. Another four arrest warrants were issued but the persons were declared fugitives: two in Africa, one in Sweden and the fourth in Rome, reports ANSA. Migrants aboard the boat underwent continuous physical violence and reiterated torture as well as repeated rape, including gang rape, reported the news agency citing police statements after arresting the five traffickers Tuesday. The arrests came the same day as statements from Palermo prosecutors saying anti-immigration policies adopted by the majority of host countries are a boon for human traffickers.

While it could be months if not years before the full details of the crash and capsizing of the Costa Concordia are fully revealed and understood, early indications point to human error, specifically an “unapproved, unauthorized maneuver” to divert from its programmed course by the captain, according to a report in the New York Times, citing Pier Luigi Foschi's, the chairman and chief executive of Costa Cruises, comments at a press conference on Monday, January 16, 2012, in Genoa. To date, at least six were killed in the mishap and more than a dozen remain missing. The Italian cruise ship company – who's parent company is Carnival Corporation – was quick to point out the potential fault of Captain Francesco Schettino…

French justice officials have asked Italy for help in investigating the December 12 sinking of the Maltese-registered tanker Erika which caused a serious oil spill off France's west coast. The French investigating magistrate reportedly sent an official request through diplomatic channels asking that Italian police verify inspections carried out by Italy's RINA maritime verification board on the vessel. The request also concerned Panship, the vessel's Ravenna-based owners, the officials said. France has said it will unveil new maritime safety measures next month following the spill that polluted a 400 km (250 mile) stretch of its Atlantic coast, with devastating fallout for tourism and fishing.