Italian police: Migrant smugglers gave children sleeping pills to keep quiet during border crossing

MILAN (AP) — Traffickers in a migrant smuggling cell that authorities busted in a cross-national investigation administered sleeping pills to children to prevent them from making noise as they were carried at night across the Croatian-Slovenian border. Police in the northeastern Italian city of Trieste have identified 26 suspects in the cell, all Albanian and Kosovo citizens, many living in Italy. The investigation was launched before Croatia dropped its border controls earlier this year. Migrants were brought by car to the Croatian-Slovenian border, escorted by foot across the border at night, then picked up on the other side. While children were given sleeping pills, adults were jacked up on “huge amounts” of energy drinks to make the trek.