Spanish police break up people smuggling ring

Spanish police on Wednesday confirmed they had broken up a people smuggling network and arrested 10 people thought to be involved.

The police confirmed that the arrests, which were carried out by the Unit against Illegal Immigration and False Document Networks (UCRIF) and the Provincial Brigade for Foreign Affairs and Frontiers from Almeria, were made in the cities of Almeria and Murcia in the southeast of the country.

Those arrested were Algerians, thought to have smuggled "dozens" of their fellow countrymen into Spain at a cost of around 600 euros (about 680 U.S. dollars) per head.

Investigations were opened in November last year after two boats carrying 38 would be immigrants were detained off the coast of Almeria. During the investigation police concluded that two people had fallen overboard during the hazardous crossing of the Mediterranean and been drowned.

"Regarding one of those who disappeared, we were able to discover that the motor on the boat broke down and the four organizers on one of the boats decided to set fire to a container of gasoline in order for the boat to be seen and subsequently rescued," explain the Spanish National Police Force.

"This action accidentally burned the clothes of four occupants on the boat, who had to jump overboard. Three were rescued, but the fourth drowned," they explain.

The police say those arrested "gave instructions on how to sit during the voyage and what to say if they were intercepted."

Thousands of migrants attempt to the Mediterranean to reach Spain from North Africa on makeshift boats and inflatable dinghies every year, with around 3,000 thought to die in the process, while many more also attempt to climb the border fences which surround the Spanish North African enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla as they seek a better life in Europe. Endit