Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) has made an arrest in an ongoing investigation of gangs whose business is organizing small boat crossings of the English Channel.
According to the NCA, the 38 year-old suspect who claims to be from Iraq, was arrested at a raid on a residential house located in the Stefano Road area off of New Hall Lane in Preston, England. He is charged with “facilitating illegal immigration” into the United Kingdom.
The NCA also seized a number of documents and phones from the location where the arrest occurred. Officials said that the charges are specifically linked to a pair of small boat crossing which transported illegals from France to Britain in November and December of 2023.
The suspect fell under suspicion for being a “fixer” servicing migrants who wished to travel from Turkey to the United Kingdom. He is said to have used social media to advertise his people-smuggling services.
Art Mullen, the senior investigating officer for National Crime Agency assigned to the case, characterized the arrest as “significant” turning point in a longstanding international investigation into organized crime facilitating the illegal movements of people across borders. He went on to say that tackling the problem of organized immigration crime was a top priority for his agency. Several events in recent weeks, he said, have revealed the high danger involved in the crossings.
The agency is thus determined to do everything it can, he said, in collaboration with partners in Europe, the UK, and the wider world, to find the criminal organizations that facilitate such crossings, and to target, disrupt, and dismantle the networks of people and financing that are essential to this profitable field of illicit business dealings. He placed a high priority on securing incarceration for the people most responsible, in order to create a lasting deterrent for those considering this area of criminal activity.
As of late April of this year, nearly 6,500 people have crossed the English channel in small boats so far in 2024.
