By Bosphorus News Geopolitics Desk
INTERPOL reported 262 arrests and 434 new investigations after an operation against migrant smuggling and human trafficking involving 16 countries, including Türkiye, Greece and the Republic of Cyprus. Communis Maris ran from October 5 to 8, with a coordination unit in Athens; INTERPOL released the results on November 10.
Of those arrested, 221 were suspected of migrant smuggling, 16 of human trafficking and 25 of other offences, including travel-document fraud. INTERPOL also identified 41 organized crime groups, 109 potential trafficking victims and 1,715 irregular migrants. It did not say that all 41 groups had been dismantled.
A total of 7,660 officers checked over 378,000 people and made 210,594 queries against INTERPOL databases. Photographs released by the organization show checks in Türkiye, but it provided no Turkish arrest total or breakdown of where the identified groups operated.
Athens Coordination and Turkish-Greek Police Talks
The Athens unit helped participating police services exchange intelligence. Also in Athens on October 8, the operation's final day, Turkish Interior Minister Mustafa Çiftçi and Greek Minister of Citizen Protection Michalis Chrysochoidis discussed organized crime, migrant smuggling and police cooperation.
The Greek ministry's participant list included Mustafa Serkan Sabanca, head of Türkiye's INTERPOL–Europol Department and a European delegate on INTERPOL's Executive Committee. Neither the ministry nor INTERPOL linked the talks to Communis Maris, and INTERPOL did not identify Sabanca as a member of its Athens unit.
The ministers also raised extraditions and INTERPOL Red Notices. Ankara sought the return of wanted suspects held in Greece, while Athens urged Türkiye to seek notices for suspects facing Turkish arrest warrants, as detailed in Bosphorus News's account of the October talks. A Red Notice is a request to locate and provisionally arrest a wanted person, not an international arrest warrant.
Arrests Across the Mediterranean and West Africa
In Greece and the Republic of Cyprus, authorities arrested people at airports over suspected use of forged travel documents. INTERPOL did not publish separate national totals. In Libya, police rescued 34 potential trafficking victims and arrested three suspects linked to a group accused of migrant smuggling, trafficking and extortion. Syrian authorities arrested seven suspects, including an alleged organizer, and intercepted 22 irregular migrants.
Mauritanian authorities intercepted a boat carrying 80 passengers after a warning from Senegalese officials and arrested three suspected organizers. Morocco stopped another vessel carrying 70 people, including 30 minors. INTERPOL also reported arrests in Algeria, Tunisia and France.
The European Union funded Communis Maris through INTERPOL's Project Himaya, which supports efforts against migrant smuggling and human trafficking in North Africa. INTERPOL did not specify which of the 434 new investigations involved the same networks across borders.
Türkiye's Separate TÜRKPOL Proposal
Türkiye has separately proposed a Crime Fighting Council within the Organization of Turkic States. At a September 10 meeting of interior ministers, Çiftçi presented it as a possible first step toward TÜRKPOL, a regional police-cooperation agency. The October 30 Ankara Declaration called for the agreement establishing the council to be signed, without announcing that it had been established. The Turkic states police proposal remains separate from Communis Maris; neither proposed institution took part in the operation.
Sources: INTERPOL, Greece's Ministry of Citizen Protection, Türkiye's Ministry of Interior, Organization of Turkic States, INTERPOL Project Himaya, Bosphorus News review and reporting.