TRIPOLI, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- Libya's Jufra District Police on Sunday announced arresting a group of migrant smugglers in central Libya's town of Zillah, located some 750 km southeast of the capital Tripoli.

The arrestees are accused of killing migrants and burying the bodies in the desert, torturing migrants through starvation and rape, kidnapping migrants for ransom up to 10,000 U.S. dollars per head, as well as selling and buying migrants, the police said in a statement, without specifying the number of the detained smugglers.

"Dens used to detain and sell migrants to other smugglers in other areas were destroyed in order to eliminate such inhumane criminal practices," the police said.

On Saturday, the district police announced the arrest of three members of a criminal gang accused of kidnapping and torturing migrants.

Because of the insecurity and chaos in the country since the fall of the late leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, many migrants, mostly Africans, chose to cross the Mediterranean to Europe from Libya. Enditem

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