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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2016\/06\/09\/world\/09migrants-web3\/09migrants-web3-master315.jpg?w=800&ssl=1\")
\nMedhanie Yehdego Mered is taken into custody by Italian police after being extradited from Sudan, accused of smuggling migrants into Europe. Credit Italian National Police<\/p>\n
By GAIA PIANIGIANI and SEWELL CHAN<\/p>\n
JUNE 8, 2016<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
European Union delegates paid tribute before rows of coffins at an airport hangar in Lampedusa, Italy, in 2013. The coffins held the bodies of the victims of the shipwreck that killed more than 300 migrants off the Sicilian island. Credit Roberto Salomone\/European Commission, via European Pressphoto Agency<\/p>\n
ROME \u2014 An Eritrean man accused of organizing an extensive people-smuggling network that led to the deaths of hundreds of Africans trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea has been captured in Sudan and extradited to Italy, the authorities said Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The arrest, which followed an investigation that involved the Sudanese, Italian and British authorities, was a rare instance in which a person has faced direct criminal charges for the human trafficking that has made the Mediterranean one of the world\u2019s deadliest migration routes.<\/p>\n
Officials said the smuggling ring was responsible for the deaths of 359 people when a vessel capsized off the Italian island of Lampedusa in 2013. The authorities said he styled himself as \u201cThe General\u201d \u2014 a reference to the reach of his criminal network \u2014 and that he had been heard on intercepted telephone calls joking callously about the deaths of the victims, who were fleeing violence and desperation.<\/p>\n
The Italian authorities identified the man as Medhanie Yehdego Mered, 35, though the information could not be independently confirmed. Mr. Mered, they said, was seized in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, on May 24, and flown to Rome on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n
The Sudanese police carried out the arrest after the British authorities tracked him to an address in the El Diem area of Khartoum, the British National Crime Agency said.
\n
\nMedhanie Yehdego Mered is taken into custody by Italian police after being extradited from Sudan, accused of smuggling migrants into Europe. Credit Italian National Police<\/p>\n
\u201cTelephone interceptions gathered by the Italians confirmed Medhanie was organizing regular journeys across the Mediterranean, and was also directly coordinating other people-smugglers responsible for land routes,\u201d the agency said in a statement, using what the Italian authorities said was Mr. Mered\u2019s first name. \u201cDuring one recorded conversation Medhanie was heard laughing about the fatal overloading of migrant ships.\u201d<\/p>\n
The sinking of the boat, a flimsy fishing vessel, off Lampedusa on Oct. 3, 2013, was a signal moment in the migration crisis. While refugees from the Syrian civil war have been among the most prominent faces of the problem, many other migrants from strife-torn countries in sub-Saharan Africa, including Sudan and Eritrea, have traveled to Libya, where there is barely a functioning government. Part of the Italian region of Sicily, Lampedusa, about 70 miles from Tunisia, has been a destination for many African migrants.<\/p>\n
The boat was packed with more than 500 people. Of the 155 who survived the shipwreck, around 100 ended up in Sweden.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis operation is important not only because it struck one of the bosses of a criminal ring that has smuggled thousands of people, but also because it effectively demonstrated international judicial and police cooperation,\u201d Francesco Lo Voi, the chief prosecutor in Palermo, the regional capital, said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Mr. Lo Voi said that Mr. Mered had been responsible for smuggling thousands of migrants to Italy since 2012, making \u201cenormous profits\u201d without regard for the life-threatening risks taken by the migrants. Like the British authorities, Mr. Lo Voi took note of the phone call in which Mr. Mered was recorded laughing about the overloading of the boats.
\nInternational Migrant Crisis By MEGAN SPECIA and BEN LAFFIN 2:27
\nA Rise in Mediterranean Deaths<\/p>\n
http:\/\/nyti.ms\/1XBMAu3
\nVideo
\nThe founder of the Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS), Christopher Catrambone, spoke about the rising death toll in the central Mediterranean, driven by migrant drownings. By MEGAN SPECIA and BEN LAFFIN on Publish Date June 7, 2016. Photo by Spanish Army\/European Pressphoto Agency. Watch in Times Video \u00bb<\/p>\n
A statement from Mr. Lo Voi\u2019s office said Mr. Mered \u201cnot only directed the activities in the African continent, but also constantly kept abreast his collaborators in Italy with the boat arrivals, so that migrants could continue traveling to their final destination.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Mered will be charged with leading a transnational criminal conspiracy, human trafficking, illegal banking activities and abetting illegal immigration, Italian prosecutors said. He faces up to 30 years in prison.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe General\u201d is suspected of controlling a large area through his contacts and of personally coordinating smugglers on the land routes in Africa, Italy, the Netherlands and Scandinavian countries.<\/p>\n
In several cases, Italian prosecutors said, he paid Libyan officials to free migrants from Libyan jails, then sought to extort compensation from the migrants\u2019 families. In one wiretapped conversation, Mr. Mered boasted that he had paid $40,000 to Libyan jailers to free a group of people.<\/p>\n
The migrants were \u201cauthorized\u201d to leave for Italy \u2014 or to leave Italy for other parts of Europe \u2014 only after their relatives made additional payments, prosecutors said. The payments were made in phases: one for the land route through Libya, a second to cover the sea crossing and a final payment if the migrants made it to destinations north, like Germany or Sweden.
\nEuropean Refugee and Migrant Crisis<\/p>\n
Source\u00a0\u00a0 – The New York<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By GAIA PIANIGIANI and SEWELL CHAN JUNE 8, 2016 European Union delegates paid tribute before rows of coffins at an airport hangar in Lampedusa, Italy, in 2013. The coffins held the bodies of the victims of the shipwreck that killed more than 300 migrants off the Sicilian island. Credit Roberto Salomone\/European Commission, via European […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":34510,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ethiopanorama.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/09migrants-web2-master768.jpg?fit=768%2C513&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ethiopanorama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ethiopanorama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ethiopanorama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ethiopanorama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ethiopanorama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34502"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/ethiopanorama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34502\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34511,"href":"https:\/\/ethiopanorama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34502\/revisions\/34511"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ethiopanorama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/34510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ethiopanorama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ethiopanorama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ethiopanorama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}