Police intervened in 17 Italian cities and made 32 arrests, most of them Iraqi Kurds, said Alessandro Guiliano, one of the chief investigators in the Venice police force.

At the same time, seven suspects were arrested in Germany, two in France, two in Switzerland, two in Belgium and one in Greece.

From late 2006 through the end of last year, the illegal network smuggled more than 2,500 Iraqi Kurds into Europe, police said.

The investigation into the illegal migrant network began in 2006 after the arrest in Venice of Iraqi Kurds trying to get into Italy from Greece. People smugglers were then set to send the would-be immigrants into countries throughout Western Europe.

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