The National Police has arrested in Alicante for twelve crimes of reckless homicide a minor who is one of the survivors of a boat-patera that arrived in January and in which only five of the seventeen people who had embarked in Algeria survived.
The detainee is of Algerian nationality and is accused of reckless homicide, injuries, favoring illegal immigration and belonging to a criminal organization , police sources reported this Sunday.
The five survivors of the shipwreck were rescued by Maritime Rescue 22 miles from the coast and transferred to the Temporary Attention Center for Foreigners in the port of Alicante, where after an initial medical assessment by the Red Cross, two had to be transferred to the General Hospital of Alicante due to severe hypothermia and the rest remained in the custody of the agents.
The chances of completing the trip successfully were “almost nil”, since the boat in which they were traveling consisted of an inflatable rubber boat , about five meters long, with little engine power and little fuel storage, according to the same sources.
To this was added an overload of crew, the lack of GPS and the inexperience of the skipper, who barely knew how to handle the boat, which caused it to stop and drift from the day after the start of the trip and for 6 days. , while the weather conditions were adverse and caused the boat to capsize and everyone fell into the sea.
After taking statements from the survivors, including some relatives of the deceased, the information collected from the reports of disappearance and the remains collected by the investigation group, it was possible to identify all the deceased.
Likewise, it was shown that the detainee was allegedly part of a criminal organization dedicated to the illegal trafficking of immigrants in boats from the coast of Algeria to Spain, charging these people for this “exorbitant” amounts according to the standard of living in their country: they paid between 2,500 and 1,900 euros for the journey to Spain, when the average salary in Algeria is 250 euros per month.
The investigation began with the complaint of one of the survivors and was taken over by the Unit Against Immigration Networks and Document Falsehoods of the Provincial Immigration and Borders Brigade of Alicante.
The detainee, who at the time of his arrest was admitted to a Foreigners Internment Center, was placed at the disposal of the Valencia Children’s Prosecutor’s Office, which decreed his admission to a Center for Minors.
As determined by the investigation, this organization had several members with specific functions or differentiated tasks, coinciding with the criminal structures of illegal immigration networks.
In the last year, the Aliens and Borders Brigade of Alicante has arrested a total of 17 boat owners involved in favoring illegal immigration.