French police arrest seven people-smuggling suspects

Gang allegedly raked in up to €3m in one year

French police have arrested seven alleged people smugglers. Getty Images

Seven people suspected of being members of a people-smuggling ring that helped migrants enter the UK illegally from France have been arrested.

It is alleged the gang picked up migrants in Paris and took them to service stations where they were hidden in lorries bound for the UK without the drivers’ knowledge.

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French police said people smugglers charged each migrant €3,000 ($3,566) for the passage, giving their network total revenues of €1.5m to €3m in one year.

Jean Arvieu, deputy chief of the police’s illegal immigration office, said the criminal ring was run by Iraqi Kurds who took over the network after gangland wars with rival groups.

Police officers, who investigated the traffickers for a year before the arrests, found that at the height of the business there were daily runs between Paris and Britain.

There was no evidence of any collusion between truck drivers and people smugglers, Mr Arvieu said.

Most people trafficked on the route were Iraqi, Iranian, Afghan, Syrian or Pakistani – nationalities who often target the UK as their final destination.

Young men between 20 and 35 and families made up the biggest contingent, he said.