IMPERIA (ITALPRESS) – Starting from the afternoon of Monday, February 16th, in Italy (provinces of Imperia, Turin and L’Aquila) and in France (in the provinces of Marseille, Nantes and Nice), investigators of the Italian State Police and the French National Police performed restrictive measures issued by the Italian and French Judicial Authorities, against 15 recipients, under various titles investigated for favoring immigration.
The prosecution system outlined by investigators found full and total response in the Judge’s decision for Preliminary Investigations, which, at the outcome of the validation hearing, laid down for most of them the maximum restrictive measure of the precautionary custody in prison and for one of them the obligation to reside. The operation is part of a wider investigation, conducted within the framework of a joint Italian-French investigative team launched in June 2025, coordinated by the Procura della Repubblica of Imperia and the Procure de la République of Nice, which has dealt with multiple inquiries – mainly Central African – active both in Italy and in France, facilitating the passage of irregular oltralpe migrants, even minor ones, through the frontier of Ventimiglia.
For the Italian part, the investigations were carried out by the mobile team of the Questura of Imperia, the police sector of Frontiera of Ventimiglia and the Central Operating Service, with the support of the mobile teams of Turin and L’Aquila and the Commissariati of Sanremo and Ventimiglia, while for the French part it has proceeded the OLTIM of Nice; the Joint Investigative Team has participated also the Unit of Operational Research (URO), a working group.
The survey allowed us to monitor and reconstruct more than 200 episodes of aid of irregular migrants along the frontier of Ventimiglia, transported mainly on board cars, trains and buses, to which the inquisitors would provide assistance, counterfeit documents, tickets, new clothes not to arouse suspicion and confuse among the commuters, as well as instructions to circumvent controls. In some circumstances, the stops would suggest the clandestines to hide in the connecting compartment between the railway wagons, exposing them at risk for their safety; on other occasions, the inquiries, acting at night, violated the seals of the trucks at the stop at the port of Ventimiglia, with destination France and other countries, in order to introduce migrants, with the risk of abphyxia, with the risk of abuse.
One of the migrants, monitored in Italian territory, was caught in flagrantee in French territory immediately after having accompanied a minor migrant beyondconfine; moreover, a mixed Italian-French team has seized 13.400 euros in cash found in the availability of one of the traffickers stopped, money that, truthfully, came from the cross-border traffic of migrants, with a precise price, variable depending on the method of chosen travel, more discreet 100 euros for the clandestine journey on heavy vehicles, with migrants hidden in the trailers to the unknowing of drivers, with a high risk for safety; 70/100 euros for the train or bus, with the supply of false documents, of new clothes not to arouse suspicion and false luggage to be confused among the commuters; 50 euros on foot, through steep hills that separates Ventimiglia to Menton. With regard to payment methods, in addition to the wide use of cash, migrants would have used Italian banking and payment circuits, as well as foreign ones, through reloads on prepaid cards or transfers on accounts controlled by traffickers.
The investigations have also documented a series of contacts between the inquisitors and other people living in other parts of the national territory (Rome, Milan, Turin, Bologna, Genoa, Catania, Cuneo and Lampedusa) and abroad (United Kingdom, France, Spain, Germany and Luxembourg); contacts that had the purpose of requiring the “passeurs” of Ventimiglia Auxiliary in illegally crossing the Italian-French border. As regards the nationality of “favored” migrants, the investigations showed a prevalence of subjects from Magreb and the Horn of Africa, mainly directed in France, Spain, Luxembourg, Germany and the United Kingdom.
“The Italian State Police and the French National Police have performed 15 stops against a criminal group active in favoring illegal immigration from Italy to France along the border of Ventimiglia – explained Deputy State Police Roberto Tesorino -. The investigation took advantage of a joint Italian-French investigative team composed of investigators from both countries, of which the URO, the Operational Research Unit, a special body composed of Italian police officers and French police officers operating in Ventimiglia since February 2023 to counter irregular immigration at that border. The investigations have reconstructed more than 200 episodes of aid of illegal immigration in different ways, using trains, bus lines, heavy vehicles, often used to the unaware of drivers. Investigations in particular would provide migrants with assistance in various ways, for example by providing counterfeit documents, new clothes to be confused with commuters, as well as instructions that would sometimes expose migrants to serious risks for their personal safety, such as hiding in the connecting compartments of railway wagons. The prices for the benefit of illegal immigration varied from 200 to 300 euros in the case of the use of private cars for the accompaniment of migrants across the border, as well as 50 to 100 euros in the case of the use of bus lines or trains. In the course of the activities several thousand euros have been seized that are considered proceeds of criminal activities”, he concluded.
– photo screenshot video State Police –
(ITALPRESS).
