POLICE BUST UK ‘PEOPLE SMUGGLERS’
Raids after year-long probe
DETECTIVES have swooped on gang members suspected of smuggling hundreds of migrants into the UK.
Twenty-one suspects were arrested yesterday in dawn raids following a year-long investigation.
The mob is believed to have charged migrants up to £9,000 to hide in lorries crossing the English Channel.
Most of the trafficked families are Iraqi Kurds. Among those arrested were two men suspected of being organisers ® of the gang, which has been operating in France, Belgium and Holland.
More than 350 police officers were involved in the raids – across Cleveland, London and East Sussex – in one of the biggest operations the National Crime Agency has carried out since it launched five years ago.
NCA deputy director Tom Dowdall said: “We believe we have identified and disrupted a significant network which is suspected of smuggling hundreds of migrants into the UK and planned to carry on.”
Police arrested a man aged 42 at a terraced house in Linthorpe, Middlesbrough. He was one of 16 people arrested in the Cleveland Police area with two held in London, two in Sussex and one in Northumbria.
Senior Investigating Officer Mark Spoors said the suspects were arrested on suspicion of immigration offences and possible links to money-laundering.
Spot checks were also carried out on a number of hand car washes in the regions.