In a major international operation, UK, French, and German authorities have dismantled an organised crime group (OCG) responsible for smuggling migrants to the UK via dangerous small-boat crossings in the Channel.
The operation, led by the French National Police unit OLTIM and supported by the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA), resulted in 13 arrests and the seizure of vital smuggling equipment.
On Wednesday, 4 December, approximately 500 German police officers carried out raids in North Rhine-Westphalia and Baden-Württemberg. The coordinated effort led to the arrest of suspected senior members of the network and the confiscation of 21 boats, 24 engines, life jackets, pumps, and cash.
The smuggling network had been sourcing and storing equipment in Germany before transporting it to the Channel for illegal crossings.
The NCA played a crucial role by providing intelligence on the gang’s activities, helping to target key figures within the operation. Collaborating with law enforcement agencies from Belgium and the Netherlands, the task force was coordinated through Europol and Eurojust, showcasing the strength of international cooperation in tackling organised crime.
Tom Outhwaite, NCA International Regional Manager, highlighted the significance of the operation:
“The operation has demonstrated the benefits of working internationally to target these OCGs, and we are grateful to our French and German partners for what they have done. We believe the action undertaken here will have significantly degraded a people smuggling network impacting the UK, which has been directly responsible for putting lives at risk in boats on the Channel.”
Those arrested in Germany now face extradition to France for further legal proceedings. This collaborative effort underscores the commitment of European law enforcement to dismantle networks that exploit vulnerable individuals while putting lives at risk.
Outhwaite further spoke on the NCA’s dedication:
“Targeting, disrupting and dismantling these gangs remains a priority for the NCA, and we are devoting more resources to doing that than ever before. That includes additional officers working overseas in locations where criminal networks are active to assist on operations like this.”
Good stuff. They really all need to be put away in prison for very long sentences, make it a life sentence as a deterrent.
I suspect for every one you put away there will be ten to take their place even if you re-introduced hanging – but we will see. The solution here lies is persuading the migrants not to come that means changing their place of origin into a pleasant place to live and work. A vast quantity of the world population seem to be on the move. Ultimately the developed world must help them fix their current home – unless someone has a better idea.
“changing their place of origin into a pleasant place to live”
Good luck with that, you have got more chance of boiling the oceans with a single kettle.
You cannot bring democracy/prosperity where it involves major cultural changes, you can look at Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya as examples.
Take away the strong man dictator and the country breaks down into tribal/religious factions, they want Sharia law and not western democracy. They just don’t see that this is the thing that holds them back.
Positive news. This needs to be coordinated European wide enterprise, but would be even more effective with a revised ECHR, taking its intentions back to to its origins
Oh, Europol working in cooperation does what it can really do as opposed to bullsh!t bollocks by The Bluffer Johnson and Faking Farage, long live Brexit and the retards that voted for it.
The worst economic crime committed against the UK was Brexit and if Johnson and Farage, et al, were hung from lamp posts al la Mussolini style, it wouldn’t be soon enough.
Looking at you Jason Fancy them all, tup them all.
Oh yeah cos the EU economy is thriving. It’s one big happy family. You lost get over it!
We all lost.
And it’s not like our economy is exactly roaring, either.
Do explain why it is working with us if we are not in the EU?
What a remarkably ignorant comment DB! Boris was, however, a huge disappointment from Covid onwards.
I agree the damage those 2 did to the UK economy is immeasurable. This was for there own gain.
WELL DONE YOU GUYS! Fabulous news, it’s amazing what we can achieve if we work together.
PLEASE give them the maximum sentences, they care not for the lives of these refugees they put at risk, all they want is money! … And don’t be soft on ‘how much’ each person was involved, they ALL played a part…. Plus IF they don’t have European passports, deport them, they are no use to a decent society..
(Take every single bit of property they own too)
… Just a quick thought, if Europe had to register the sale of boats/motors or even life jackets jackets etc, (or at the manufacturing level as well as the ‘kite mark’, it would make it a little easier for the authorities to track down) …. (a similar way they do guns in the US, it would slow down these criminal gangs, I know that nothing will stop them but the most we can do is slow them down/make it more difficult.
Registering the sale of all boats in the same way as registering cars would be a huge administrative burden and would fail, because the people you are dealing with are criminals who would buy stolen boats.
Plenty more where they came from. The draw-factor has to be removed. But they won’t do that. There’s only one political party who will remove the attraction of these islands.
There is no political party that will remove the draw factor..there is one the pretends it will, but the draw factor is the labor market pure and simple, until the UK manages its labour markets properly we will draw in massive amounts of legal and illegal workers.
Australia did succeed by using the turn back policy. Massively reduced small boats. If people know that boarding boat will see you end back where you started then there’s no incentive to board.
Can it and would it work in the UK, Australia shows concept works but UK and EU legal frame works are not the same as Australia.
Not advocating any particular policy on this myself.
You mean the draw-factor of us being a peaceful, prosperous and wealthy nation with high standards of living and a healthcare system that’s free at the point of service?
Those are the main draw factors. And I’d rather not remove any of that.
So those arrested in Germany face extradition to France, quick Google and voila French prisons are massively over populated not sure Frznce has the capacity to jaill 1000s of people smugglers. And whilst group leaders can get 15 years many sentences for others are far less and suspended.
In theory if this is a deterent then we should be seeing a drop in boats from now.
Europlod couldn’t police a kids birthday party. This operation will have been running for months taking up huge resources. Well done but now they have to start again on either a new OCG or picking off those fighting over the embers of this one. This is exactly what happens in ‘the war on drugs” while the demand is there target ops do nothing except slow things down for a while. Starmer knows this but he is such a liar. Law enforcement can do no more than disrupt and upset but the problem goes away only in his mind. Law enforcement is only a small part of the jigsaw, deterrence for the users is the only long term solution. We gave up enforcing drugs use decades ago and now drug smuggling is rampant as it ever was. We have given up deterring migrants so much the same outcome is inevitable.