Six men have been convicted of people-smuggling and sent to prison following a joint operation between British and French police.

The men were given sentences ranging from two to five years after a trial in the French city of Douai.

The gang comprised of Iraqi Kurds Alan Mohammad Ali, Zana Reza and Peshawa Hassan, as well as Afghan Naweed Safi and Sudanese Abdou Adame.

The sixth member was Hafid Belghoul, the only French national.

The investigation has been heralded, on both sides of the Channel, as a triumph of closer collaboration.

The gang used a lock-up garage in the city as a centre for their operations, despite being located an hour and a half from the French coast.

It was there that boats, engines, life jackets, pumps and jerry cans were stored until needed for crossings.

In July 2022, British police alerted French authorities about an illicit shipment that was on its way to the town of Auby, five miles from Douai.

French police launched a surveillance operation and saw the gang take delivery of a van with Turkish number plates, loaded with boxes. It was driven to the garage in Douai.

In the coming weeks, the police continued the surveillance, using listening devices in vehicles belonging to the gang, and saw deliveries of 32 dinghies to the garage.

They eventually raided the lock-up, seizing equipment and arresting the six men.

‘We’ve disrupted 59 organised gangs’

“This has been one of many significant operational results over the last two to three years”, the UK’s National Crime Agency deputy director Oliver Higgins told Sky News.

“Jointly with France, we’ve disrupted 59 organised gangs, and we’re building on that collaboration, seeking to go further upstream in tackling the supply chain of the boats.”

The growing number of migrants who come to northern France, intent on crossing the Channel in small boats, is a significant political issue in both countries.

British officers are now working alongside counterparts in France and a joint intelligence centre has been established after a dramatic rise in the number of crossings over the past 12 months.

Read more on Sky News:
‘I do not force anyone to get on boats’ – people smuggler

Speaking just minutes after the verdicts were read out, Frederic Fourtoy, the regional chief prosecutor, told Sky News: “Co-operation with British authorities was absolutely crucial in this very case.

“The response of French authorities to human smuggling and trafficking is, and will remain, absolutely merciless. Jail, and jail for many years.

“That is the answer for those who are taking advantage of despair and misery of other human beings with absolute disregard for human life.”

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