Police have broken up a major organisation specialised in human trafficking and carried out a number of arrests in several Italian cities.
A total of 22 people have been arrested so far, nine others are still at large and are believed to be abroad, and investigators said they were part of a non-Italian gang specialised in smuggling illegal immigrants from the Libyan coast to Italy.
The crackdown was the result of a joint investigation involving Italian and Libyan police who believe the gang may also be responsible for the murder of two Nigerians who sought to escape during a crossing.
Those arrested so far have been charged with criminal conspiracy, human trafficking, slavery, kidnapping and illegal immigration.
National Anti-Mafia Prosecutor Piero Grasso said the operation was the first against the "new frontier" of organised crime, which involves non-Italian criminals operating on Italian territory.
"We are paying close attention to these new criminal gangs which are trying to establish themselves even in areas already controlled by traditional domestic crime syndicates," Grasso added.
Friday's arrests were carried out in the southern Calabrian port city of Crotone, Milan, Florence, Bologna and Rieti, northeast of Rome. Of the 31 arrest warrants issued, two were for Bulgarians and the rest were for North Africans as well as Eritreans, Ethiopians and Sudanese.
Investigators believe that the organisation was also involved in helping immigrants escape Italian processing centers in the south and reach the north. They also suspect gang members may be guilty of extortion, rape and other sexually-related crimes.
