Police 'arrest wrong person' in hunt for people smuggler accused of causing hundreds of refugee deaths in the Med

Relatives told The Independent they recognised the arrested man as Medhanie Tesfamariam Berhe

Medhanie Mered, a 35-year-old Eritrean man accused of heading a prolific people smuggling operation (NCA)

Friends and relatives of a man accused of being one of the world’s most wanted people smugglers are insisting police have arrested the wrong person.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) hailed the capture of a criminal “mastermind” responsible for hundreds of refugee deaths in the Mediterranean Sea earlier this week, saying he had been extradited to Italy to face trial.

But people watching footage of the handcuffed suspect being led off a plane claimed the man named by authorities as Medhanie Yehdego Mered, 35, is in fact Medhanie Tesfamariam Berhe, a 27-year-old Eritrean refugee who was arrested in Sudan late last month.

Five of Mr Berhe’s family members and friends told The Independent they recognised him on the news on Wednesday after weeks of desperate attempts to find out where he had been taken.

A relative in Khartoum, who did not want to be named, said: “You can see by his hair, his appearance, by everything that he is someone different (to the smuggler).

“For two weeks we didn’t know where he was and then we saw the news on the television…we want help.”

A man claiming to be Mr Berhe’s housemate said police raided their home in Khartoum and detained his friend without explanation a fortnight ago.

“They took him without any warning, without saying anything – we didn’t know anything,” Ermias said.

“We didn’t know where he was but then we saw on the internet he is in Italy.”

He said he recognised his housemate, who is also known by his ancestral name of Kidane, immediately when he saw photos of the arrested suspect in news footage.

“He’s not a smuggler, he doesn’t even work, his family have to send him money,” Ermias said.

A photo of Medhanie Tesfamariam Berhe, 27, supplied by his family (Supplied)

“He’s a kind person, he’s not a criminal. They have the wrong person - the smuggler is still out there.”

When asked whether he or his friends had tried to tell police they were mistaken, he said officers ordered them to be silent after they raised objections during the raid.

He added: “We were afraid, there are no human rights here.”

A woman who said she was Mr Berhe’s sister told The Independent it was impossible for him to be the smuggler as he was still in Eritrea in 2013, when the accused was allegedly responsible for a boat sinking off the coast off Libya.

Hiwet, who is currently living in Norway, said: “They say my brother is a murderer but he is innocent. They have the wrong person. I want to go to Italy, I want to know where he is.”

Meron Estefanos, a Swedish-Eritrean journalist who has interviewed Mered about his smuggling, told The Independent that dozens of people started contacting her after she posted news of the arrest on Twitter.

“His family members, childhood friends, classmates – everybody who knew him was saying: ‘This is the wrong person,’ she said.

“He left Eritrea at the end of 2014 but this smuggler is accused of a crime in Libya in 2013 – it just doesn’t add up.”

Eritrean asylum seekers arrive in southern Italy (AFP/Getty) (AFP/Getty Images)

She believes Mr Berhe may have been "rounded up" with other Eritreans in Sudan, either accidentally because of their shared first name and nationality, or - as rumours in Khartoum have it - deliberately after authorities were bribed by the smuggler himself.

The NCA’s announcement said a prolific people smuggler, known as “The General” because he styled himself on Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, had been arrested in Sudan following an international operation.

It said Mered, 35, was apprehended by the Sudanese National Police on 24 May after it tracked him down to the El Diem area of Khartoum, and arrived in Rome on Tuesday.

It was part of a joint operation by the UK’s immigration crime taskforce and Italian authorities investigating a boat sinking that killed 359 migrants off the coast of Lampedusa in 2013.

Italian prosecutors say Mered was responsible for the disaster and is the mastermind behind a major criminal organisation responsible for smuggling thousands of migrants from the Middle East and Africa into Europe from Libya.

Telephone interceptions allegedly confirmed he was organising regular journeys across the Mediterranean and was directly coordinating other people smugglers responsible for land routes, with one recording showing him laughing about the deadly overloading of refugee boats.

Tom Dowdall, Deputy Director of the NCA, said Mered has “an absolute disregard for human life”.

“Although he was operating thousands of miles away, his criminal activity was impacting the UK,” he added.

Local fishermen and boat crewmen throw a wreath into the waters off Lampedusa harbour to honour those who lost their lives when a boat carrying migrants sank here (EPA)

“Medhanie no doubt thought he was beyond the reach of European justice but we were able to support the Italians by tracking him down to Sudan.”

He is charged with being chief and organiser of a transnational criminal conspiracy aimed at smuggling people from Africa to Europe, as well as inhuman treatment and risking the lives of migrants.

Mr Berhe’s brother, Fassahaye, was trying to get in touch with police and Italian prosecutors in Sicily.

He said his brother escaped Eritrea in 2014 and travelled to Sudan via Ethiopia, arriving last year, and had never been to Libya.

“You can see by their faces that they don’t even look similar,” Fassahaye added. “It’s just a big mistake.”

One of thousands of refugees who paid for Mered’s services, and met the smuggler in 2011 and 2013, told the Wall Street Journal the man shown arriving in Italy was not the same person.

“I am over 100 per cent sure it’s not the right guy,” said the man, who has since been granted asylum in Sweden.

Major refugee routes run through Africa, with smugglers transporting migrants in desperate conditions through countries – including Ethiopia, Sudan and Libya – on lengthy journeys that not all survive.

Most are taken to the Libyan coast, where overloaded boats are launched towards Italy, often being left to drift in international waters until they are spotted by European patrol ships.

Eritreans make up a significant portion of the asylum seekers crossing the Mediterranean Sea, escaping a litany of human rights abuses documented in the authoritarian state, which has been accused of crimes against humanity by the UN.

More than 48,000 migrants picked up from smugglers' boats have been brought to Italy so far this year, almost all from African nations including Nigeria, Gambia and Somalia.

At least 2,800 lives have been lost in treacherous sea crossings that have made the route from Libya to Italy the most deadliest passage in the world.

Italian authorities said they would check its information as Mr Berhe’s family continued to appeal for his release on Thursday.

Francesco Lo Voi, the chief prosecutor in Palermo, Sicily, told the Associated Press: “We are undertaking the necessary checks, but this seems unusual.”

A spokesperson for the NCA said it was aware of the claims of mistaken identity.

“This is a complex multi-partner operation and it is too soon to speculate about these claims,” he added.

”The NCA is confident in its intelligence gathering process.”