Police in Sicily on Monday arrested a 21-year-old Tunisian suspected of sailing a migrant boat from Libya with 360 passengers on board, who were rescued by an Irish ship and taken to the port of Pozzallo at the weekend.
Police said they found a stash of US dollars believed to be fares paid by the migrants for their passage and a SIM card sewn inside the Tunisian's trousers
Most of the migrants about the packed fishing boat were from Bangladesh and also came from Ethiopia and Syria, local daily Il Quotidiano di Ragusa reported.
The migrants included 30 women, of whom seven were pregnant and 14 minors, the paper said.
Eighty suspected people smugglers have been arrested in Sicily's southern port of Pozzallo this year, Il Quotidiano and other local media reported.