Police in Italy, Albania and Greece today arrested 29 people on charges of making hundreds of millions of euros by smuggling migrants from Turkey into the European Union. said Europol. The detainees are believed to be part of a chain of 80 members that organized at least 30 smuggling operations in which at least 1.100 people were shipped from Turkey to the coast of Puglia and then to other European EU countries.

Eleven people have been arrested in Italy as well as Iraqi and Syrian nationals who provided logistical support, said Lt. Col. Giuseppe Giulio Leo, head of Italy's financial police in Lecce. He said some of them had been arrested earlier in the investigation, which was launched more than a year ago.

Eighteen people have been arrested in Albania and one in Greece, Europe saidl.

The organizers of the operations are believed to be in Turkey, so prosecutors in Lecce have activated diplomatic channels, hoping to arrest the leaders of that criminal gang, Leo said.

Europol said the smugglers charged 6.000 to 10.000 euros for transport from Turkey to southern Italy