Libyan police have managed to free three migrants in a raid on a house in Sebha, southern Libya. The migrants were being held by a trafficking gang, whose members fled after exchanging fire with the Libyan Criminal Investigation Department (CID).
The Sebha CID stated that the operation came after a Sudanese worker reported that he and three of his brothers had been kidnapped by a gang.
“The kidnappers released one of the abductees to bring them 90,000 Libyan dinars, in order to release the others. He then went to report the incident to the police,” the statement added.
During the raid, police clashed with the kidnappers, but no casualties were reported.
“The kidnapped migrants were released, and they were in good health,” the statement noted.
In October, members of the Criminal Investigation Agency, in cooperation with the Security Task Force of the Misrata Security Directorate arrested a Libyan man accused of kidnapping and extorting foreign workers.
The man was a part of a criminal gang, that specialized in kidnapping foreign workers and then demanding a ransom from the victims’ families.
The statement said that the man had kidnapped three Bangladeshi workers in October. He also reportedly killed one of them, and threw his body on the seashore. The other two Bangladeshi workers were successfully freed.
“The investigation members collected the information, and set up a tight ambush to arrest him,” the statement added.
Legal measures were taken, and the Attorney General’s Office was notified, the statement concluded.
In July, Libyan security forces freed 110 Bangladeshi migrants, who had been subjected to “various forms of torture and extortion.”
The 444th Brigade said in a statement that its forces, “carried out a lightning operation” during which they managed to free the kidnapped migrants. The gang that held them consisted of nine Bangladeshi human traffickers, in cooperation with two Libyans.