Doubts emerge over identity of man alleged to be people-trafficking 'General'

British and Italian police are rushing to establish whether they have caught the wrong person in a much-hyped anti-trafficking operation that reportedly led to the capture of one of the world's most-wanted people smugglers.

On Tuesday, prosecutors in Italy announced to much fanfare that they had detained Mered Medhanie, 35, known as “The General,” in a major victory against the gangs of people smugglers who are packing desperate migrants and refugees onto leaky boats to Europe from North Africa.

Medhanie’s arrested was trumpeted as a “key turning point in the fight against trafficking” by the Italian Interior Minister Angelino Alfano who dubbed it an “an extraordinary result" in a bid to stop "merchants of death".

However, friends and family of a man, who was extradited from Sudan on Tuesday, have come forward with claims that there has been a case of mistaken identity and the man’s real name is Mared Tesfamariam.

A women in Norway, who identified herself as his sister, told the BBC’s Newsnight programme that her brother was “completely innocent” and that while her brother shares a name with the wanted man, he had never been to Libya, where “The General” was thought to have based his operations.

The speculation over mistaken identity has the potential to be hugely embarrassing for Italian police and officers from Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA), which was also involved in the operation.

It could also cause embarrassment for the British government's covert communications arm GCHQ which posted on social media that it had also supported the operation.

On Thursday, the NCA said in a statement that it was “too soon to speculate” about the claims of mistaken identity and insisted it was “confident in its intelligence gathering process," while an Italian police official also played down claims of a mix-up, telling journalists that he was unaware of an investigation into the identity of the suspected people smuggler.

Images of the man police say is Medhanie were released in Rome on Wednesday after the NCA said it had tracked the suspect down to an address in Khartoum, where he was arrested.

It was heralded as the first time a suspected top smuggler had been arrested in Africa and brought to face justice in Italy, which has seen the arrival of hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants.

However, police are now rushing to confirm if they have the right man in custody as more and more people come forward to question their claims, including Hermon Berhe, who lives in Ethiopia, and said he grew up in Eritrea with the man now in jail in Italy.

He told the BBC: "I don't think he has any bone in his body which can involve such kind of things. He is a loving, friendly and kind person.”

Meanwhile Meron Estefanos, a Swedish-Eritrean journalist who has interviewed “The General” said the detained man was a refugee “who happened to be in Khartoum at the wrong place at the wrong time”.

Medhanie is alleged to be the leader and organiser of one of the largest criminal groups operating between Africa and Europe and the NCA said he is thought to have arranged the transit of a boat that sank near the Italian island of Lampedusa in October 2013, with the loss of at least 359 lives.

Medhanie was dubbed “The General” after he styled himself on late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. He is also said to have driven around in a tank and boasted: “Nobody is stronger than me.”