Police said on Saturday they were continuing an investigation to dismantle an international migrant trafficking ring. Two Greek nationals aged, 54 and 57 years, two Italians aged 55 and 47 years, and a Turk, 43, were arrested while allegedly attempting to transport 54 irregular migrants from the small western port of Astakos to Italy for 135,000 euros.

The 54 undocumented migrants from Syria, Somalia, Iraq and Iran were loaded onto a truck in Aspropyrgos, west of Athens, on Good Friday and taken to the location in western Greece, where the two local men and the Turkish national received them in order to hide them until the smuggling vehicle from Italy arrived.

The two Italians sailing to the area were arrested by coast guard officers who alerted police. Police found the third country nationals and the men accompanying them after launching a search of the area. They were arrested on Saturday morning.

The driver of the truck that transported the group from Aspropyrgos has still not been captured by police, who are examining the phone records of nine cell phones of the suspects in the hope of gathering more information.

The migrants had been approached in various locations around the greater Athens area and were offered the illegal passage to Italy in exchange for 2,500 euros. The migrants are currently incarcerated at the police headquarters at Messolonghi.