An Egyptian people smuggler made more than £12 million ($15.5 million) from sending thousands of migrants across the Mediterranean in an operation he ran from his London home, a court has been told.
Ahmed Ebid, 41, arrived in the UK on a small boat in October 2022 but three weeks later he was organising the movement of migrants from Libya to Italy in craft with hundreds crammed on board.
The former fisherman was linked to the smuggling operation after he made phone calls to satellite phones on board the migrant boats. Those numbers were then used to call the Italian Coastguard telling it the location of the migrant ships, so they could be towed to safety and those on board taken ashore.
The UK’s National Crime Agency bugged his home in west London and recorded calls he made organising smuggling, in which he referred to boats in code as “cars”, and he was eventually arrested and charged in June 2023.
Ebid has pleaded guilty to assisting unlawful immigration but at a special hearing in a London court is disputing aspects of the case against him.
Prosecutor Frederick Hookway said Italian authorities interviewed the migrants and asked them how much they paid, and passed that information to the NCA as part of its investigation into Ebid. The average paid by the 3,781 migrants whose passage he organised was £3,272, meaning he made £12,375,212, the NCA calculated.
“This gives an indication, the prosecution submits, of the scale of the profits to be made from this enterprise,” said Mr Hookway.
The prosecution alleges that Ebid was involved in the sourcing and provision of boats and crews for crossings from Libya to Europe. It says he also gave technical advice to the crews during the crossings, was involved in the movement of migrants before the crossings, organised their housing and dealt with any paperwork.
Ebid maintains that he made only €15,000 ($16,400) from the operation and that his involvement was limited to providing navigational and seafaring advice. He said his primary motivation was to get his family to the UK.
Seven crossings, from October 2022 to April 2023, have been directly linked to Ebid and he called one boat 34 times. The number of migrants on board the vessels ranged between 200 and 700.
In the bugged conversations, Ebid was heard to say of people smuggling that “it’s a living which came to my doorsteps, would I say no to it?” and that it was “30,000 times” better than fishing. In another call he said that anyone carrying a phone on board a boat “will be killed”.
During a search of his home, two Italian mobile phones were seized along with other devices. Two notebooks were also seized, one of which contained maritime co-ordinates for the area between Libya and Italy.
Ebid has a previous conviction for attempting to smuggle a tonne of cannabis into Italy, for which he was given a six-year jail sentence.
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Ten tax points to be aware of in 2026
1. Domestic VAT refund amendments: request your refund within five years
If a business does not apply for the refund on time, they lose their credit.
2. E-invoicing in the UAE
Businesses should continue preparing for the implementation of e-invoicing in the UAE, with 2026 a preparation and transition period ahead of phased mandatory adoption.
3. More tax audits
Tax authorities are increasingly using data already available across multiple filings to identify audit risks.
4. More beneficial VAT and excise tax penalty regime
Tax disputes are expected to become more frequent and more structured, with clearer administrative objection and appeal processes. The UAE has adopted a new penalty regime for VAT and excise disputes, which now mirrors the penalty regime for corporate tax.
5. Greater emphasis on statutory audit
There is a greater need for the accuracy of financial statements. The International Financial Reporting Standards standards need to be strictly adhered to and, as a result, the quality of the audits will need to increase.
6. Further transfer pricing enforcement
Transfer pricing enforcement, which refers to the practice of establishing prices for internal transactions between related entities, is expected to broaden in scope. The UAE will shortly open the possibility to negotiate advance pricing agreements, or essentially rulings for transfer pricing purposes.
7. Limited time periods for audits
Recent amendments also introduce a default five-year limitation period for tax audits and assessments, subject to specific statutory exceptions. While the standard audit and assessment period is five years, this may be extended to up to 15 years in cases involving fraud or tax evasion.
8. Pillar 2 implementation
Many multinational groups will begin to feel the practical effect of the Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (DMTT), the UAE's implementation of the OECD’s global minimum tax under Pillar 2. While the rules apply for financial years starting on or after January 1, 2025, it is 2026 that marks the transition to an operational phase.
9. Reduced compliance obligations for imported goods and services
Businesses that apply the reverse-charge mechanism for VAT purposes in the UAE may benefit from reduced compliance obligations.
10. Substance and CbC reporting focus
Tax authorities are expected to continue strengthening the enforcement of economic substance and Country-by-Country (CbC) reporting frameworks. In the UAE, these regimes are increasingly being used as risk-assessment tools, providing tax authorities with a comprehensive view of multinational groups’ global footprints and enabling them to assess whether profits are aligned with real economic activity.
Contributed by Thomas Vanhee and Hend Rashwan, Aurifer
History's medical milestones
1799 - First small pox vaccine administered
1846 - First public demonstration of anaesthesia in surgery
1861 - Louis Pasteur published his germ theory which proved that bacteria caused diseases
1895 - Discovery of x-rays
1923 - Heart valve surgery performed successfully for first time
1928 - Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin
1953 - Structure of DNA discovered
1952 - First organ transplant - a kidney - takes place
1954 - Clinical trials of birth control pill
1979 - MRI, or magnetic resonance imaging, scanned used to diagnose illness and injury.
1998 - The first adult live-donor liver transplant is carried out
