Two men arrested in Birmingham are among six detained in England, as part of a major people smuggling ring probe.
All the men are Afghan nationals. Police detained them on Wednesday, February 12th, while coordinating actions in Belgium and Italy too. In total, they arrested ten people.
A 25-year-old man got arrested on Oxford Road, Birmingham. He appeared in court on Wednesday, and a 28-year-old man got held on Soho Road, Handsworth, with his court appearance on Thursday.
NCA officers arrested four more men in Leicester, Coventry, and Essex. Belgian courts issued warrants for their arrests. Two 25-year-old men got arrested in Leicester and appeared in court on Thursday. A 22-year-old man got arrested in Essex, and a 20-year-old man got held in Croydon; both appeared in court on Wednesday.
Belgian prosecutors stated the men organized migrant transport. The migrants were from Afghanistan, traveling through Iran, Turkey, and the Balkans, via the Serbian/Hungarian border to Western Europe. Their destination was primarily France and Belgium.
The crime group operated since 2022. They used social media to talk to migrants, who, after asylum claims rejection in Belgium, moved to the UK via small boats. The gang moved many people this way.
NCA officers helped the Belgian investigation for two years. They provided info to Belgian Federal Police about suspected network members. Belgian authorities accuse the six arrested of people smuggling and of belonging to a criminal organization.
NCA Deputy Director Craig Turner spoke about the network, stating they moved migrants worldwide through Europe to Northern Europe and the UK. He said they will disrupt these gangs with international partners and bring the perpetrators to court. He added organized immigration crime is an enduring threat and the NCA has 70 live investigations into related gangs.
In December, NCA officers arrested three men in the UK for similar offenses, but in a separate case. A court in Antwerp sentenced 20 gang members to a total of 170 years, with sentences varying from two to eighteen years. Eleven men got tried even though they were not there, including the three arrested in the UK. They wait for extradition to Belgium to serve their prison sentences there.
NCA officers worked with Border Force and Immigration Enforcement to find migrants and victims transported to the UK, performing safeguarding checks on these people.