Italy: Turkish Hezbollah illegal-immigration cell busted

Rome, 21 Feb. (AKI) - Anti-terrorism police in central Italy on Tuesday arrested nine people suspected of having links with the Turkish Hezbollah for allegedly participating in a criminal illegal immigration ring.

The arrests in the city of Terni were made after police served 41 search warrants.

The Sunni Muslim terror group is unrelated to the Shia Lebanese organisation with the same name.

Italian police launched a probe after a Turkish national who was the target of an international arrest warrant was arrested in Italy's northern Lombardy region.

He shed light on the existence in Italy of a Turkish Hezbollah cell that helped Palestinian and Kurdish migrants illegally reach Italy by providing false documents related to non-existing human rights violations that could facilitate the granting of political asylum.

The migrants paid for "an all-inclusive package that guaranteed travel, lodging and work," Italian anti-terrorism official Fabio Berrillo told Adnkronos. "All this after making false declarations to the Italian authorities about fake stories of torture in their country of origin.

Turkish Hezbollah was founded in southeastern Turkey during the early 1980's. Its goal was the establishment of a Sunni Muslim theocracy in Turkey, according to the US-government sponsored National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, or START.