On the afternoon of Sunday, May 25, officers of the Rhodes Port Authority spotted a suspicious yacht in the sea area of Lachania.

Subsequently, a Coast Guard patrol vessel on scheduled patrol headed to the area, where it located the yacht speeding toward the Turkish coast. An attempt was made to stop it using visual and audio signals, which were ignored, and the vessel engaged in dangerous maneuvers in an effort to escape.

Eventually, it was immobilized by the Coast Guard, and the three foreign nationals on board (Turkish citizens aged 39, 44, and 45) were arrested.

At the same time, personnel from the 1st Lindos Port Department of the Central Port Authority of Rhodes and the Rhodes Police Directorate located 76 foreign nationals (29 men, 17 women, and 30 minors) in the surrounding land area. According to the statements of the foreign nationals, they had boarded a tender vessel from the Turkish coast, which transported them to the yacht. From there, they departed from the Fethiye region of Turkey with the goal of reaching Rhodes, each paying approximately €5,500 for the journey.

During the preliminary investigation, the 39-year-old was identified as the smuggler of the aforementioned migrants, the 45-year-old as his assistant and the operator of the tender that transferred them to the yacht, and the 44-year-old as an assistant and coordinator in their transportation from Turkey to Greece.

The criminal organization operated repeatedly and aimed at the illegal transport of migrants from the shores of Fethiye, Turkey to Rhodes. The Central Port Authority of Rhodes is conducting the investigation, while the yacht used for transporting the migrants, as well as the inflatable tender attached to its stern, have been seized.