Agents of the National Police have arrested two men on the island of Lanzarote as alleged perpetrators of crimes of aiding illegal immigration and reckless homicide, after being identified as those responsible for handling and navigating the boat that capsized last week off the coast of Órzola.
According to this body, one of those arrested already has numerous records in Spain for crimes of assault, trespassing, drug production and violation of the immigration law, in addition to having a ban on entering the Schengen area in force.
The events occurred on Thursday night, when the emergency services reported the arrival on the coasts of Órzola of a semi-rigid boat of about nine meters in length. Due to the force of the sea, the boat ran aground on the rocks of Costa Calmada, with all its occupants falling into the sea. The neighbors who jumped into the water and the emergency services managed to rescue 41 of the people traveling in the boat alive (20 men, 17 women and four children), finally locating four lifeless bodies, including that of an eight-year-old child.
The agents of the National Police then began a police investigation that they say "allowed them to fully identify two of the members of the boat as those responsible for handling and navigating it", so both were arrested.
With these latest arrests, the number of boat skippers arrested by the National Police in the Canary Islands for crimes against the rights of foreign citizens so far this year rises to 89.