Gang behind 1 in 4 migrant crossings smashed in raids
A PEOPLE- smuggling gang behind as many as one in four Channel crossings has been smashed after police raids across the Continent.
British officers and European colleagues had spent more than a year unravelling the ‘powerful’ and ‘ highly organised’ network.
Video footage released yesterday showed the moment Britain’s FBI swooped on an alleged kingpin in the largest Channel people- smuggling operation ever taken down by police.
Iranian-born Hewa Rahimpur, 29, who lives in London, was arrested at the wheel of a top-ofthe-range Mercedes by National Crime Agency (NCA) officers.
Rahimpur was told: ‘ Your extradition is sought by Belgium in relation to offences of complicity in a criminal organisation trafficking in human beings.’ The network is thought to have smuggled up to 10,000 people to Britain over the last 18 months, meaning it was behind one in four of the 40,000 arrivals from northern France over that period.
Rahimpur’s arrest set off a cascade of further raids across Europe – with a total of 39 people detained in the UK, Germany, France and the Netherlands this week.
Police on the Continent seized 135 boats, 45 outboard engines and more than 1,200 lifejackets – including more than 60 boats and 900 lifejackets in just one barn at a farm near Osnabruck in Germany.
Home Secretary Priti Patel said: ‘These arrests send a clear message to the criminal gangs who are preying on vulnerable people across Europe and beyond: We will stop at nothing to end your sordid trade, bring you to justice and save lives.’
Rahimpur ran a mobile phone shop in Wanstead, east London, and was also listed as a the director of a barber shop.
He is accused of sourcing small boats in Turkey and supplying them to other elements of the people- smuggling ring in Belled gium, Germany and the Netherlands. He would then arrange for the vessels to be delivered to the French coast, Belgian prosecutors allege.
It is understood Rahimpur is challenging his extradition from the UK.
He was arrested in May but the full significance of his role emerged only yesterday after co-ordinated international raids to six more arrests in the UK, 18 in Germany, nine in France and six in the Netherlands. Firearms and thousands of euros in cash were also recovered in the operation, which involved more than 900 officers.
Jean-Philippe Lecouffe, deputy executive director of European policing agency Europol, said: ‘This is the most significant operation ever mounted against smuggling operating across the English Channel.’
He added that cross-Channel human trafficking is thought to have generated profits of more than £50million last year.
Matt Rivers, from the NCA, said: ‘ Given the number of boats that were seized I think you could expect a fall in the number of crossings in the immediate future.’
Some 12,855 migrants have reached the UK via the Channel since the start of the year. It is thought at least 50 arrived yesterday.
‘We will stop at nothing’