Italian police said five people were arrested in Rome and Brussels on charges of smuggling migrants from Turkey into Western Europe on a private jet with flights worth about ten thousand euros (ten thousand dollars).

The statement said that the suspects, detained on the basis of arrest warrants issued by the Belgian authorities, are accused of joining a criminal organization whose goal is to facilitate illegal immigration.

The statement added that they issued fake diplomatic ID cards from St. Kitts and Nevis to migrants and boarded them on a plane bound for the Caribbean country during a trip that included a stopover in Europe.

The Italian police added that the migrants, who were described as mostly Kurds or Iraqis, disembarked the plane, revealing their real identities and asking for asylum.

According to investigators who recorded five separate landings in Italy, Germany, France, Austria and Belgium between October and December 2020, each migrant paid about 10,000 euros for the trip.

The suspects were arrested after joint investigations by the police of five European countries with the assistance of the US authorities and the Europol and Eurogast agencies of the European Union.

The search for two more suspects continues in Italy and Belgium. As part of the operation, Belgian police confiscated two private jets worth €426,000.