Nice one, you got me for a second.

Jokes aside, I believe that nigerians have been involved in human trafficking for a while now. They do not cover the "trip" to Lampedusa tho, that's handled by tunisian/libyan groups.

As for the gang thing, I do believe that the term could fit them, but society does give a different weight to each "label".

To me a gang stops being a gang and becomes a mob when members and profits increase and the overall organization gets layered and better structured. Plus their activities get diversified as well.