Interpol migrant-smuggling operation arrests over 260

Interpol said Tuesday that police arrested more than 260 people and identified 41 migrant-smuggling networks in a four-day operation involving 16 countries across west and north Africa, Europe and the Middle East.

The operation, called Communis Maris, ran from October 5 to 8 and was coordinated from Athens with European Union funding, the Lyon-based police organisation said. Interpol said officers arrested 221 suspected migrant smugglers, 16 alleged human traffickers and 25 people accused of other offences, including forging or using fraudulent documents, and opened more than 430 investigations.

Interpol said several boats were intercepted at sea, including one off Morocco carrying 70 people, 30 of them minors, after six days at sea, and a wooden pirogue that had left Senegal and was intercepted off Mauritania with 80 passengers. It said 7,660 officers took part from countries including Algeria, France, The Gambia, Libya, Malta, Mauritania, Senegal, Syria and Turkey.