Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Italy: Target of Bulgarian "Oliver Twist' Gang

The ANNOTICO Report

 

A gang of 116 Bulgarians Adults are using Bulgarian children from as young as age 8 to 14 for begging, pick pocketing, couriers, (carrying drug and passports), and  even prostitution in Italy, exploiting Italy's laws which  do not allow anyone 14 or younger to be arrested, a two year investigation revealed.

                                                               

CHILD CRIME RING FOILED, SAY ITALIANS

 

The Sydney Morning Herald

May 31, 2006

 

POLICE in Italy have smashed a criminal network exploiting hundreds of children from impoverished families in Bulgaria by forcing them to work as modern-day Oliver Twists.

The children, aged from eight, were sent out to beg on the streets and trained to pickpocket passengers on buses and subway trains.

Investigators said the youngsters were beaten or threatened if they did not fulfill their daily quota and were "relegated to the status of mere objects", after their families rented them out to the gang in exchange for a share in the profits or an immediate cash sum.

In one case, officers in Venice came across a 13-year-old girl who was eight months pregnant. "The group took advantage of the fact that a child under 14 cannot be arrested in Italy," a carabinieri official, Gabriele Passarotto, said.

Charges against the alleged members of the network include enslavement, drug trafficking and facilitating illegal immigration - activities allegedly financed by the thefts. Some 41 Bulgarians have been arrested so far, with another 75 people under investigation.

Police, who carried out the two-year investigation with the Bulgarian authorities, said they also found evidence of sexual exploitation after undercover officers were offered the chance to buy young girls to be used as prostitutes.

General Giampaolo Ganzer, who headed the operation, said that while the parents knew "perfectly well" their children were being used to steal, he believed "they did not know these children were also being put on the market for sexual acts".

Some children were also compelled to act as couriers, carrying drugs and false passports.

Officers described the investigation as "difficult and complicated". Some infiltrated the gang while others kept suspects under surveillance for months in Italy, Bulgaria, Germany and Austria. Investigators said they had been able to reconstruct the modus operandi of the network, which comprised at least 116 people.

Many of the children were taken from their homes to Trieste, the gateway city to Italy for Eastern European countries such as Bulgaria. They were accommodated in flats or campsites, out of sight of social services or police, and transported into cities to work 10- or 12-hour days. They were moved every few months to avoid detection.

Details of the investigation, codenamed Elvis Bulgaria, were revealed in Trieste on Monday in a press conference attended by Piero Grasso, Italy's chief prosecutor of organised crime.

"This is a phenomenon that we must fight to overcome because the crimes against innocent children are crimes against humanity," Mr Grasso said.

 

The Guardian; Telegraph, London

TRAFFICKING WITH A TWIST


* Most of the children "rented" by the gang were from Bulgaria and between the ages of eight and 13.

* Younger children were more suitable, because they would not be prosecuted if caught.

* The gang boasted to parents that each child would steal a minimum of Ђ1000 ($1700) a day.

* The families signed contracts with the syndicate and were promised a percentage of their child's earnings.

 

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