Farce as French arrest 5 ‘culprits’ ... all are innocent
The ruthless smugglers responsible for the deaths of 27 migrants were still at large last night after bungling French police arrested the wrong men.
In an extraordinary farce, just hours after the French interior minister Gerald Darmanin announced that five culprits ‘directly linked’ to the tragedy had been captured, it emerged that the suspects had nothing to do with it.
Prosecutors in Lille leading a manslaughter inquiry said there was ‘no provable link’ between the arrested men and the capsized boat. ‘early inquiries do not connect to the Calais tragedy,’ a source said.
The hasty arrests just hours after the horror raised eyebrows among British investigators, amid concerns about the competency of French efforts to control the crisis.
Mr Darmanin had stated that at least one of the five suspects held beyond Dunkirk near the French border with Belgium was using a car ‘with a German licence plate’ and had bought small boats from Germany.
But yesterday a spokesman for the National Crime Agency (NCA), which is assisting French investigators, said the whereabouts of the gang had yet to be determined.
The spokesman added: ‘It is clear that there is no single “silver bullet” solution, law enforcement or otherwise, which will end these crossings.’
NCA deputy director Andrea Wilson said: ‘What happened in the english Channel was a tragedy and our first thoughts have to be with the families and loved ones of those who died.
‘The exact circumstances of this incident remain under investigation, but we know a high percentage of these attempted crossings are facilitated by organised criminal networks, who do not care about the safety
‘They do not care about safety’
or security of those they transport. A French judicial investigation into these deaths is now under way and we have offered our French counterparts the full support and resources of the NCA.’
The NCA, which investigates organised immigration crime, has seen a record number of migrants attempting to cross the Channel in small boats this year, paying around £3,000 for the journey on average.
A reduction in international passenger travel and freight transport during the pandemic saw smugglers shift their operations from using lorries to small inflatable boats, which offer the dual advantage of boosting profits and less risk of being caught.
It is not an offence to purchase or possess such a vessel in the UK or europe.
Investigators have also started to see migrants group together to buy cheap inflatable boats without any organised crime group involvement.
NCA arrests have nearly doubled this year from 76 people held in 2020 to 140 this year.
There are around 50 investigations into the ‘top tier’ of organised immigration crime making millions from the deadly trade.
On Wednesday, just hours before the tragedy, the NCA announced it had helped dismantle an organised crime group in France charging £5,000 for a place on a boat carrying up to 60 people.