After two years of manhunt, authorities in Ethiopia have arrested suspected migrant trafficking boss. He has been extradited to face justice in Italy, Italian justice ministry sources said on Tuesday.
Temesghen Ghebru Ghebremedhin is “considered a key member of a vast transnational organisation dedicated to smuggling migrants from North Africa to Europe”, a source said.
The 35-year-old Eritrean suspect, who is charged with membership in international organised crime and abetting illegal migration, was apprehended at Addis Ababa airport.
Judges in Palermo, Sicily, had issued an arrest warrant for him and several other alleged human traffickers in 2020.
Ghebremedhin was on Interpol’s “red notice” fugitives list and was stopped while on his way to Australia, where other members of his alleged criminal group operate.
Over the past ten years, hundreds of thousands of migrants have landed on Italian shores, usually after paying smugglers thousands of dollars to risk their lives on wobbly boats.
Italian prosecutors have launched several investigations into the lucrative Mediterranean migrant trafficking business, but securing arrests or convictions has proven very elusive.