Afghan people smuggling gang dismantled in joint Anglo-French operation
Eight members of an Afghan criminal gang suspected of charging migrants up to 3,000 euro each to smuggle them to the UK in small boats have been arrested and charged following a multi-agency operation involving the National Crime Agency (NCA) and French law enforcement.
The network is accused of buying second-hand boats from classified adverts placed online, then deflating them and burying them on beaches along the coast of the Pas-de-Calais region ready to be used.
Each boat could carry between ten and 15 migrants, who would be charged between 2,500 and 3,000 euro each to get to the UK, said the NCA. The group is suspected of having been involved in at least six attempt to cross the Channel already, three of which were thwarted by the French authorities.
Officers from the NCA and French illegal immigration unit OCRIEST, working together as part of the Anglo-French Joint Intelligence Cell (JIC), had launched an investigation into the gang last November.
This led to members of the network being placed under surveillance. Officers from the NCA-led Project Invigor organised immigration crime taskforce, which also includes Immigration Enforcement, Border Force and the Crown Prosecution Service, worked with OCRIEST to link the group to crossings and boats that had arrived in the UK, sharing evidence and intelligence with the French.
Last week French police made ten arrests in the Yvelines region, west of Paris.
Eight of those arrested were later charged with facilitating illegal immigration by a French magistrate. Three were remanded into custody, all suspected of being gang organisers.
Miles Bonfield, head of organised immigration crime operations for the NCA said: “Operations like these demonstrate the benefits of us working closely with our French counterparts. Through the JIC we now have NCA officers on the ground in France, sharing intelligence and working together, day in day out.
“These people smuggling networks are callous and show no care for the safety of the people they transport, putting them in small dinghies that are unfit for this type of crossing.
“Working with our law enforcement partners in France and elsewhere we are determined to do all we can to disrupt and dismantle these networks, who are putting lives at risk.”
The NCA said since the JIC began operation last year more than 180 “suspected facilitators” of people smuggling have been arrested in France.