Medhanie Yehdego Mered (C), 35, is pictured with Italian policemen as they land at Palermo airport, Italy, following his arrest in Khartoum, Sudan, on May 24. Picture released on June 8, 2016 by Italian Police Department. Image pixellated at source. Italian Police Department/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
ROME (Reuters) - The slender Eritrean man with a close-cropped beard was arrested by Sudanese police on the afternoon of May 24 at a coffee shop in Khartoum. Two weeks later, he was flown to Italy in what Italian and British officials hailed as a rare blow against human trafficking.
They believed they had caught Medhanie Yehdego Mered, a ruthless kingpin known as “the General” in an illegal network that earned millions of dollars smuggling migrants by boat to Europe via Libya.
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