The suspect – recognized as Kidane Zekarias Habtemariam – is accused of main a legal group that abducts, extorts and murders East African migrants making an attempt to cross the Mediterranean Sea from Libya, the France-based police company mentioned in an internet assertion.
He was arrested on Sunday in a ″main worldwide police operation led by the United Arab Emirates, based mostly on data shared by way of Interpol,″ mentioned a press release from the UAE’s Ministry of Interior, revealed by The Khaleej Times.
A breakthrough within the manhunt got here after UAE authorities started intently monitoring Habtemariam’s group and members of his household, uncovering cash laundering patterns that led them to Sudan, the company mentioned.
Interpol first started monitoring Habtemariam’s actions in 2019.
Habtemariam had been the topic of two Interpol pink notices, one from Ethiopia and the opposite from the Netherlands, the company mentioned.
Dutch authorities accused Habtemariam of working a camp in Libya that housed hundreds of migrants.
Habtemariam was convicted in absentia and sentenced to life imprisonment after escaping from custody in Ethiopia whereas on trial on folks smuggling prices in 2020.
Libya has lately emerged because the dominant transit level for migrants searching for a greater high quality of life in Europe.
The oil-rich nation plunged into chaos following a NATO-backed rebellion that toppled and killed longtime autocrat Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.
Human traffickers have benefited from the chaos in Libya, smuggling migrants in throughout the nation’s prolonged land borders with six nations.
UAE Interior Minister Saif Bin Zayed Al Nahyan tweeted that Interpol mentioned the operation lasted 9 months and in addition concerned Dutch, Ethiopian and Sudanese authorities.
“Thanks to the professionalism and dedication of our cops, the world’s most needed human trafficker will not be capable to commit his despicable actions,″ Saeed Abdullah al-Suwaidi, director of the UAE’s Federal Anti-Narcotics General Directorate, mentioned in a separate assertion cited by Interpol.
Sudanese police didn’t reply to requests for remark.
