http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/07/23/cannibalism-extraction-migrants-organs-revealed-traffickers-cellphone/
Cannibalism and Extraction of Migrants’ Organs Revealed on
Trafficker’s Cellphone
MAHMUD TURKIA/AFP/Getty Images
by THOMAS D. WILLIAMS, PH.D.23 Jul 2016
Preliminary investigations into the notorious migrant trafficking
kingpin Medhanie Yehdego Mered revealed images and videos of
cannibalism, dismembered bodies, murders and the sale of migrants’
organs, according to prosecutors.
Mered, nicknamed “The General,” who was arrested in Sudan last May and
extradited to Italy in June, stands trial for the trafficking of
thousands of illegal immigrants from Africa to Italy in exchange for
millions of dollars.
Images found on the 35-year-old Eritrean’s cell phone and entered into
evidence have been described as “a graveyard of horrors,” and
allegedly include scenes of cannibalism and the murder of migrants
unable to pay the agreed-upon fees.
Testimony from Nuredin Wehabrebi Atta, a former migrant smuggler who
now cooperates with law enforcement officials, stated that in the
course of the long trek across the Sahara Desert to the Libyan coast,
“migrants who are unable to pay the agreed-up sums are systematically
killed by criminal organizations involved in human trafficking so as
to extract their organs by individuals nicknamed ‘doctors of the
Sahara.’”
The organs are reportedly “taken straight to Egypt” where they are
sold on the black market. According to Atta’s testimony, kidneys, for
instance, are sold for 15 thousand dollars each.
Reports from Eritrean refugees suggest that Sudanese drivers carry
migrants to the Libyan border, where they cram them into trucks driven
by Libyan smugglers, who take them on a torturous journey across the
desert into north-eastern Libya.
Intelligence obtained from Atta enabled Italian police to break up a
criminal ring of migrant smugglers, arresting 38 individuals spread
throughout ten different Italian provinces in early July. The suspects
have been charged with association to abet illegal immigration,
financial crimes, and even international drug trafficking.
On May 24, Mered was arrested in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum
after a year-long manhunt, in what was touted as the most significant
breakthrough to date in Europe’s fight against Africa-based migrant
trafficking.
Upon his capture, Italian prosecutor Francesco Lo Voi said that Italy
had seized “the boss of one of the most important criminal groups
operating in central Africa and Libya.” Fellow prosecutor Calogero
Ferrara said that Mered was involved in an operation that was “much
larger, more complex and more structured than originally imagined.”
The UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA), which also took part in the
investigation, said that “one of the world’s most wanted
people-smugglers” had been arrested.
Mered emerged on law enforcement radar after 359 people drowned off
the coast of the Italian island of Lampedusa in 2013, a catastrophe
linked to Mered’s network.
The trafficker’s Tripoli-based smuggling network was reportedly
responsible for the journeys of some 10,000 migrants in just three
months in 2014, at a price of up to $915,000 per boatload. Wiretaps
obtained by Italian law enforcement suggest Mered’s involvement in
extracting ransom payments from the Eritrean diaspora, and also reveal
him bragging of his bribes of Libyan policemen to release migrants
held within detention center.
Mered now faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison if convicted.
Received on Sat Jul 23 2016 - 20:50:12 EDT