Palestinian residing in Malta among seven arrested in Sicily over illegal immigration

35 year-old Palestinian Adnan Lutfi Mohammed Essabah, holder of a Maltese identity card, was arrested by Carabinieri during a dawn raid in Modica, Sicily this morning.

Essabah was arrested together with six other men, who allegedly were the masterminds behind a series of migrant arrivals on the Sicilian coast over the pqast few days.

According to the Carabinieri, Essabah, together with his alleged accomplices Italians Giuseppe Zocco and Donato Angileri, Tunisian nationals Mohammed Saidani, Mohammed Bourbia and Mohammed Krifa, and Egyptian Mahoud Farag Abdalla, organised the recent spate of migrant boats from Tunisia to Sicily.

Sources close to the investigations said that a stolen fishing boat with 84 Egyptian migrants which landed in Pozzallo two days ago, was meant to be steered towards Malta, but engine trouble led the boat to drift towards Sicily and intercepted by the Italian Coast Guard.