Egyptians and Algerians arrested over UK smuggling operation

Five have been charged as part of an operation by the Britain's National Crime Agency.

Five alleged people traffickers believed to be from Algeria and Egypt have been arrested and charged as part of a continuing investigation into the smuggling of people from the UK to France in lorries.

Officers from the National Crime Agency raised properties across London on Wednesday morning to arrest the men.

One of those charged, Madjid Belabes, 52, from Algeria, is suspected of being a high-ranking member of the people smuggling crime network.

The others charged are Said Bouazza, 54, Mourad Bouchlagehem, 45, Mohammed Mabrouk, 44, and Samir Zerguine, 51. All those arrested were accused of transporting migrants in cars and vans to be loaded into lorries.

They all appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London charged with conspiracy to aid the illegal entry of a person into an EU country.

Chris Hill, NCA Branch Commander, said the arrests are a “key moment” in the agency’s investigation into a large-scale criminal network responsible for smuggling North African migrants from the UK to France.

“People leaving the UK in lorries may be doing so because they are wanted by law enforcement, they may be trying to dodge French immigration checks, or they may be being trafficked or exploited,” he said.

“The risks to both the people being transported and to border security remains, regardless of the direction they are travelling in. The same crime groups smuggling people out of the country are often engaged in bringing people in too, so operations like this allow us to target their UK footprint.”

Mr Hill said the operation is one of 70 looking into gangs or people operating at the top tier of organised immigration crime which “remains a priority for the NCA”.

“People smugglers don't care about the safety or well-being of human beings they transport, whether it is in boats or HGVs. They're driven solely by profits.

One of the trucks that other used by people smugglers convicted as part of the same operation. Photo: NCA

The NCA also said that as part of a separate operation, a man suspected of being involved in a people smuggling organised crime group bringing people from France and Belgium has been brought back to the UK after absconding.

NCA officers arrested Arsen Feci, 46, from Broxtowe Street, Nottingham, on his return to Heathrow Airport on Wednesday. He had been arrested in Spain in August 2024 having fled Britain in March last year when he was bailed by the courts ahead of his trial.

The arrests in London were made after more than 200 North African migrants, including children, were discovered in lorry trailers travelling from the UK to France on separate occasions.

Twenty people have been arrested as part of the investigation to date, including five men who have since been convicted and jailed for transporting migrants.

Those convicted are Russian lorry driver Nikolai Kuznetsov, 39, who was jailed for four years after pleading guilty to smuggling migrants of North African origin from the UK to France.

He was stopped by Border Force officers at the port of Dover last year and 22 migrants, including a five-year-old girl and her parents, were found hiding inside his vehicle. The migrants were attempting to avoid French border immigration and visa controls.

As part of the same operation Moroccan Jamal Elkhadir, 47, and his accomplice Houcine Argoub, 32, from London, were jailed for 12 years for attempting to smuggle 39 migrants out of the UK in the back of a refrigerated lorry.

The pair was being observed by NCA officers when they met in a layby near Sandwich, Kent, in September last year.

Morrocan Jamal Elkhadir was convicted of people smuggling. Photo: NCA

Argoub, who was driving a van, parked close to Elkhadir’s Moroccan-registered HGV and several people were seen exiting the vehicle and climbing into the back of the lorry.

Elkhadir claimed he had been delivering cherry tomatoes to three businesses in the UK and had stopped for a rest break with the doors unlocked in the layby. He then changed his story and claimed he had been threatened at gunpoint to transport migrants to France.

Meanwhile, Tarik Slimani, 47, from north London, and Driss Hasska, 54, from Italy, were jailed for 22 months and 32 months for attempting to smuggle migrants from the UK to France.

The pair were spotted by NCA officers in August last year as they met at a bus stop in Kent, where they transferred a group of people from Slimani’s hire van into the trailer of Hasska’s lorry.

NCA officers tailed Hasska to a service station near Maidstone where they searched the trailer of his lorry and discovered eight men and a woman inside. A short time later, Slimani pulled into the services and both men were arrested and taken into police custody.