18 convicted in France for small boat people smuggling following joint operation involving NCA

18 convicted in France for small boat people smuggling following joint operation involving NCA

A man arrested by the National Crime Agency and extradited to France is among 18 people who have been convicted for people smuggling offences in a court in Lille.

It follows an investigation run by the office of OLTIM, the French National Police unit specialising in immigration crime, and supported by the NCA.

40-year-old Kaiwan Poore was detained by NCA officers at Manchester Airport as he attempted to board a flight to Turkey in July 2022.

His arrest was part of a huge Europe-wide operation targeting a people smuggling network thought to be behind more than 10,000 small boat crossings to the UK.

The operation, which involved the NCA, led to the takedown of a network led by Iranian national Hewa Rahimpur.

Rahimpur was arrested by the NCA in London in May 2022 and subsequently extradited to Belgium where he received an 11-year jail sentence in October 2023.

As part of the operation, involving law enforcement in the UK, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, dozens of boats and engines and hundreds of lifejackets destined for people smugglers were seized.

Around 40 people were arrested for a variety of offences during a joint day of action in July 2022.

The trial in Lille saw Poore and the other defendants charged with facilitating small boat crossings between France and the UK, with the boats and other equipment being transferred from Germany and the Netherlands to the beaches of northern France.

Each crossing stood to net the criminal network around 100,000 euros (around £83,000) in profit.

A number of those convicted were identified by the NCA, working with OLTIM, through the Joint Intelligence Cell (JIC/URO), a specialist unit based in northern France set up to target people smugglers.

They included Mirkhan Rasoul, who is said to have controlled members of the network by phone even though he was in prison in France at the time.

On Tuesday 5 November the 18 were convicted and handed sentences ranging from one year suspended to 15 years for Rasoul. Poore was given a five-year sentence.

NCA Deputy Director Craig Turner said:

"This network were among the most prolific we have come across in terms of the number of crossings they were able to organise.

"Their sole motive was profit, and they didn't care about the fate of migrants they were putting to sea in wholly inappropriate and dangerous boats.

"The NCA is working closely with our French partners, notably OLTIM, to target criminal groups like this, and these convictions demonstrate that in action.

"International co-operation is crucial in the fight against organised immigration crime, and working with the French and others we are determined to do all we can to disrupt and dismantle the gangs involved."

Tackling people smuggling is a key priority for the NCA, and we are putting more resource into disrupting and dismantling the criminal gangs behind it than ever before.

The Agency has around 70 ongoing investigations into networks or individuals in the top tier of organised immigration crime, some of these sit right at the top of the NCA's priority list.

5 November 2024