A people smuggling gang that crammed migrants into refrigerated lorry trailers and attempted dangerous journeys from the UK to France has been smashed by the National Crime Agency.
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.
A total of 12 members of the London-based crime group have now been convicted following the NCA’s extensive investigation.
Three of whom were found guilty on 16 June, following a six-week trial at Isleworth Crown Court.
Algerian national Azize Benaniba, 41, was the head of the gang – he pleaded guilty before the trial started.
The smugglers 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.
NCA investigators identified more than 20 separate smuggling runs made between February and October 2023.
Benaniba’s crime group loaded hundreds of migrants, including children as young as five, into refrigerated and unrefrigerated lorry trailers.
His lieutenants, Mahmoud Haidous, 52, Abed Karouz, 30, Amor Ghabbari, 32, and Mohamed Abdelhadi, 50, hired a network of willing drivers to make the runs.
And the network’s facilitator Mohamed Bouriche, 43, was responsible for transporting people to rendezvous locations where they would be moved into the lorries.
The NCA launched its investigation on 21 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 the travelled 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 one of the organisers’ phones including one where they can be heard banging on the sides of the trailer, screaming and crying for assistance.
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 the convictions of 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.”
