Members of a London-based people smuggling gang who crammed migrants into refrigerated lorries to transport them from the UK to France have been jailed.
Seven members of the gang were sentenced today to a total of 69 years and four months following an investigation by the National Crime Agency (NCA).
Videos found on the phone of one of the ringleaders, filmed by one of those they were trying to smuggle, showed terrified migrants screaming for help in the back of a locked trailer.
In total 12 members of the crime group have been convicted as a result of the NCA’s extensive investigation.
The head of the gang, 41-year-old Algerian national Azize Benaniba, was jailed for 12 years and 11 months at Isleworth Crown Court today.
He and his co-conspirators brought migrants of North African origin into the UK on tourist visas.
Once here they were packed into lorries and attempts were made to smuggle them into France via Dover, each being charged up to £1,200 for the trip.
Investigators from the National Crime Agency identified more than 20 separate smuggling runs made between February and October 2023.
Benaniba and his crime group loaded hundreds of migrants, including children as young as five, into refrigerated and unrefrigerated lorry trailers.
His co-conspirators, Mohammed Bechkit, 36, Mahmoud Haidous, 52, Abed Karrouz, 30, Amor Ghabbari, 32, and Mohamed Abdelhadi, 50, organised the runs and hired a network of willing drivers.
And the network’s facilitator Mohamed Bouriche, 43, 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 wellbeing of the people they crammed into lorry trailers – their only concern was making money.
“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.
“Our thorough investigation has safeguarded hundreds of migrants who were put in serious danger, and has now led to jail terms for 12 members of a prolific people smuggling network.
“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.
“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.”
The NCA launched its investigation on February 21, 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 travelling to the UK border, rescuing the migrants hidden inside and arresting the complicit drivers.
One attempt on 6 September 2023 saw 39 migrants, including women and children, 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 a 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 coordinated strike at properties in North London on March 20, 2024.
A number of videos of migrants travelling in lorry trailers were found on Bechkit’s phone, including one where they can be heard banging on the sides of the trailer, screaming and crying for assistance.
Bechkit was jailed for 10 years four months, Haidous received 13-and-a-half years, Karrouz eight years and 10 months, Ghabbari nine years, Abdelhadi seven years and three months, and Bouriche seven-and-a-half years.
Janine Baugh, specialist prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “This was a highly organised group which tried to smuggle migrants to France more than 20 times.
“They put the lives of people at risk – often in inhumane conditions – just to profit off others. We presented the court with a video of people screaming to be let out of a trailer, which demonstrates these poor conditions.
“The Crown Prosecution Service will continue to work with our partners at home and overseas and play a vital role in the Border Security Command in order to bring those involved in organised immigration crime to justice.”
