An Afghan criminal gang suspected of planning to smuggle migrants to the UK in deadly small boats has been dismantled, following a multi-agency operation involving the National Crime Agency (NCA) and French law enforcement.
Officers from the NCA and French illegal immigration unit OCRIEST, working together as part of the Anglo-French Joint Intelligence Cell (JIC), launched an investigation into the network last November.
This joint investigation led to members of the network being placed under covert surveillance.
Officers from the NCA-led Project Invigor organised immigration crime taskforce, including Immigration Enforcement, Border Force and the CPS, worked with OCRIEST to link the group to crossings and boats that had arrived in the UK.
During the operation, the UK authorities shared their evidence and intelligence with their French counterparts.
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.
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 10 and 15 migrants, who would be charged between 2,500 and 3,000 euro each to get to the UK.
The group are suspected of having been involved in at least six attempts to cross the Channel already, three of which were thwarted by the French authorities.
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 Joint Intelligence Cell 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.”
In July 2021 the NCA established a Joint Intelligence Cell with the French police unit OCRIEST.
This cell sees UK and French officers working side by side in Northern France to maximise impact against OCGs.
Since the JIC began operation more than 180 suspected facilitators have been arrested by French law enforcement.
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Too Little Too Late springs to mind. Apparently 167,000 illegal immigrants came to our southern shores last year, many of them assisted by French patrol boats to the centre of the English Channel and handed over to our Border Force to bring them into Dover.
Only yesterday 8th March, 14 immigrants were brought ashore by the Border Force, one on crutches and escorted into custody by them. One lady BF official even had her arm around one of them.
Why are they not being intercepted in the Channel and turned back by the French or British Border Force.
Priti Patel is useless and should be sacked for not doing her job.