An Algerian-led crime gang which packed migrants into lorries to smuggle them from the UK to France has been dismantled and its senior members convicted.
Video taken by a migrant from inside a lorry shows it filled with 39 Algerian and Moroccans, including a six-year-old boy. Those inside can be heard banging on the sides of the trailer, screaming and crying for assistance, with of shouting "open the door, open the door". The footage was found on the phone of one of the ringleaders by officers from the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA).
The people smugglers' tactic involved bringing migrants of North African origin into the UK on tourist visas before placing them in lorries to be smuggled from the port of Dover, on England's south coast, to France. Each migrant was charged up to £1,200 ($1,600) for the trip.
In total, 12 members of the gang have now been convicted, the latest of them at Isleworth Crown Court. It comes as the UK is looking to crackdown on the record number of migrants coming the other way from France to the UK across the English Channel.
The Algerian head of the gang, Azize Benaniba, 41, admitted his part in the operation, while others were convicted following a trial at London’s Isleworth Crown Court.
These include Mohamed Bouriche, 43, also Algerian and the gang’s facilitator, who was responsible for transporting people to rendezvous locations where they would be moved into the lorries.
John Turner, NCA senior investigating officer, said: “These smugglers had no care for the safety or well-being of the people they crammed into lorry trailers – their only concern was making money.
“These criminal networks treat human beings like commodities and we know the gangs and drivers involved in outbound smuggling are often involved in inbound smuggling, too.
“We’ve seen the fatal consequences of this crime type, as migrants have sadly lost their lives being smuggled across borders on land and at sea.”
Also convicted were Benaniba’s lieutenants Mahmoud Haidous, 52, Abed Karouz, 30, Amor Ghabbari, 32, and Mohamed Abdelhadi, 50. They hired a network of drivers willing to make the runs.
Another defendant, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was also convicted, along with four lorry drivers. They include Russian Nikolai Kuznetsov, 39, who was jailed for four years after pleading guilty.
The NCA launched its investigation in February 2023, after 58 migrants were discovered by French border police hidden inside a lorry at Calais having arrived from the UK. A series of subsequent attempts were thwarted by NCA surveillance teams. On each occasion officers intercepted the lorries as they travelled to the UK border, rescuing the migrants hidden inside and arresting the complicit drivers.
Another attempt in September 2023 saw the 39 migrants loaded into an airtight refrigerated lorry trailer at a layby in Sandwich, Kent.
NCA officers quickly intervened to rescue the migrants, but a few of them, including the child, required medical attention.
By the start of 2024, the NCA had identified key members at all levels of the organised crime group. The ringleaders were all arrested during a co-ordinated strike at properties in North London on 20 March 2024.
“Our thorough investigation has safeguarded hundreds of migrants who were put in serious danger, and has now led to the convictions of 12 members of a prolific people smuggling network,” said Mr Turner.
“Tackling organised immigration crime is a key priority for the NCA, and alongside our international law enforcement partners, we are relentless in our efforts to dismantle these networks wherever they operate.”
Home Office figures show 16,545 people have crossed the channel in small boats so far this year, a 45 per cent increase on the same period in 2024 and higher than at the same point in 2022, the record year for number of crossings.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has now signalled that countries not doing enough to tackle the irregular migration crisis, for example by taking back failed asylum seekers, could face repercussions in the number of visas issued to their citizens.
French police have also employed more robust tactics, including the use of tear gas, to prevent migrants boarding the boats, after the British government urged them to step up action.
Tourist visas to bring migrants into the EU via third countries were used in the case of two people smugglers who used a car wash in the UK as cover for their operation.
Dilshad Shamo, 41, a Kurdish Iraqi, and Ali Khdir, 40, who is Kurdish-Iranian, arranged for migrants from Iraq, Iran and Syria to obtain legal documents to enter countries such as Belarus and Moldova so they could then be trafficked on to Romania, Germany or Austria.
Some of the migrants even recorded their journeys and gave 'TripAdvisor-style' ratings as feedback to the now convicted pair.
Sentencing will take place at a later date.
