A Syrian man accused of being a senior member of a people-smuggling gang that charged migrants $6,000 to cross the Mediterranean has been arrested in the UK.
Ayman Al Taleb, 41, now faces extradition to Germany where he is wanted on 17 separate charges, the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA) has said.
He is suspected of orchestrating crossings from Libya to Europe and then arranging false documents for illegal arrivals between August 2022 and July 2024, with each migrant charged around US$6,000 for the perilous journey.
Mr Al Taleb is believed to have arrived in the UK by small boat in 2024, using a false identity. The Germans issued an arrest warrant for him in March this year.
NCA investigators established his true identity and tracked him down to his home address in Manchester.
Andy Kelly from the agency's Joint International Crime Centre said: “Tackling organised immigration crime is a priority for the NCA, and we are working with partners across Europe to target those suspected of involvement.
“People smuggling is an international issue and Germany is a key ally in the fight against the criminal networks who put lives at risk for their own profit.”
Following his arrest, Mr Al Taleb was taken to Westminster Magistrates' Court in London, where extradition proceedings began and he is due to appear again on Friday.
While people smugglers linked to the UK are more commonly associated with migrants crossing the English Channel, there have been increasing instances of them also being involved in the Mediterranean route.
Many migrants initially cross from Libya to Italy or Greece before making the journey to northern France to get on small boats to Britain.
In May, an Egyptian fisherman who helped run a $16 million people-smuggling operation, and who once told an associate to kill and throw into the sea any migrants caught with phones, was jailed for 25 years.
Ahmed Ebid, 42, worked out of a house in London, provided for him and his family by the British authorities only three weeks after he arrived by small boat.
Ebid, believed to be the first person convicted of organising illegal Mediterranean crossings from the UK, was working with networks in North Africa to organise boats, bringing over hundreds of migrants at a time on dangerous vessels.
Two Syrians suspected of smuggling hundreds of migrants across the Mediterranean were arrested in Libya in a joint operation with the NCA, it announced in April.
In what the agency described as the “most significant arrest”, Libyan police detained a “significant member” of a suspected Syrian people-smuggling network alleged to have moved “at least 2,000 people” into Europe using fragile fibreglass boats.
Two days earlier, police in Sabratha arrested another Syrian, who is suspected of arranging the transportation of about 400 migrants.
