One dead and 17 arrested in human trafficking sting
A MAN was shot dead and around a dozen more arrested yesterday morning in a police sting operation gone wrong just shy of the bicommunal village of Pyla.
The victim, who was the driver, was yesterday identified as a Syrian political asylum seeker in Cyprus.
Investigators are currently on the lookout for a 30-year-old Syrian, who is married to a Cypriot woman and living in Nicosia, who owns the car the men were arrested in.
Police had earlier received a tip-off that a human trafficking gang, which smuggles illegal immigrants from Syria and the Middle East into the south through the Turkish occupied north, was going to be active in and around the village of Pyla that day.
According to police sources, 27 Syrians arrived in a boat in the occupied area two days ago and a plan was underway to smuggle them into the south.
Undercover officers staked out the area around the village and waited until a car, carrying five men, was spotted at around 11am.
It sped off when it was initially flagged down by officers and a short chase ensued.
The policeman eventually managed to stop the car just before the exit onto the Larnaca-Ayia Napa motorway, but then the situation turned ugly.
According to officers, the five men in the car leapt out and began attacking the arresting officer.
During the scuffle, a shot was fired from a police officer’s service pistol, with the bullet hitting the driver in the chest from point blank range.
Other reports suggest that the men tried to wrestle the gun out of the officer’s hands and the gun went off.
He was rushed to Larnaca General Hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead on arrival.
The four other men in the car were eventually placed under arrest
Rapid Reaction Unit (MMAD) officers were soon dispatched to the area, where a further 12 people, all believed to be illegal immigrants, were rounded up.
Police Chief Iacovos Papacostas later arrived at the scene, where he told reporters that efforts were under way to locate more illegal immigrants believed to have been smuggled into the area.
The police chief, who would not answer questions on what exactly happened in the shooting, also stated that the exact identity of the man killed could not be revealed because, nobody had been located to identify the body.
The village of Pyla is special in the respect that it is the only settlement in Cyprus still inhabited by both its original Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot inhabitants.
In a highly sensitive location on the Green Line, the village itself is under United Nations control, sandwiched between the British Bases, the occupied areas and the free areas.
Some reports suggested Rapid Reaction Unit (MMAD) officers had entered the village as they scrambled to arrest dozens of immigrants who tried to escape on foot.
According to eyewitness reports, some of the immigrants tried to run into the buffer zone and escape back to the north, while others hid under trees and behind barns.
But a UN spokesman said that there were no reports that Cypriot police had entered the UN administrated area.
Police believe that some of the immigrants are still hiding in the buffer zone or ran back into the occupied area.
Commenting on the arrests and shooting on state television last night, Justice Minister Sofocles Sofocleous said, “I am saddened by what happened. It is unfortunate that somebody had to die in this operation but we mustn’t judge the officer in the shooting before finding out the full details of what happened.
“What is for sure that a full investigation will take place and that no cover-up will take place. If assistance from the Attorney-general is needed then we will call on him.”
Sofocleous added that almost 100 per cent of immigration problems in Cyprus come from the north.
