A 46-YEAR-OLD Cypriot man has been in connection with his possible involvement in the case of the 17 immigrants who were found in a container at Limassol Port on Tuesday.
The 46-year-old is believed to have prepared the paperwork for the container that would transport the immigrants from Limassol to Piraeus port and had picked the group up when they arrived in town.
“Police were lead to the 46-year-old’s arrest following information gathered during investigation of the case, where two Pakistani men, a 27-year-old and a 40-year-old, are in remand, as well as the 17 illegal immigrants found in a container last Tuesday,” said Andreas Angelides, Limassol Police spokesperson.
According to police, the man, who was arrested on Thursday evening, allegedly admitted that he was involved in the specific case. Police are looking into whether containers had carried immigrants along the same route to Greece in the past.
Specifically, the suspect, who claims to be unemployed, told police that one year ago while on a trip to Greece he met another Cypriot man who lives in Athens, who is the container’s owner. The man then introduced the 46-year-old to an Albanian man living in Greece who in turn asked the suspect whether he would be interested in arranging for shipments to be sent from Limassol Port to Greece.
At a later date the man told the suspect that the containers would carry illegal immigrants and that he would be paid €1,000 each time.
According to the suspect’s statement, he accepted the offer and the Albanian man got him in touch with a Pakistani man living in Cyprus. The man in question is presently wanted by police, who are also looking into the possibility of extraditing the Cypriot and the Albanian men from Greece.
Regarding the group of 17 immigrants found in a container at Limassol Port, the 46-year-old told police that he picked them up from a supermarket parking lot in Limassol at dawn on Tuesday and then took them at a site in the industrial zone of town. On Tuesday morning the group were taken to Limassol Port and lead inside a ship’s container.
The 46-year-old appeared before Limassol District Court yesterday, where a six-day remand was issued. He faces a total of seven charges, including human trafficking.
