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An Egyptian man based in the UK who smuggled thousands of migrants from north Africa to Italy as part of a £12 million (€14mn) operation has been jailed for 25 years.
Ahmed Ebid, a former fisherman, was sentenced at Southwark Crown Court in London on Tuesday, having pleaded guilty to conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration.
He is thought to be the first person in the UK convicted of organising illegal boat crossings in the Mediterranean Sea.
The 42-year-old, who described himself on social media as “Captain Ahmed,” was involved in smuggling nearly 3,800 people — including women and children — on seven separate fishing boat crossings from Libya to Italy between October 2022 and June 2023, according to the National Crime Agency (NCA).
Each migrant was charged an average of around £3,200 (€3,800) for the journey, netting the criminal network involved more than £12 million (€14mn) in total, the NCA said.
Judge Adam Hiddleston said Ebid and his associates had “ruthlessly and cynically exploited” migrants who attempted to make the journey to Europe.
“The treatment of the migrants on your orders and in your name was horrifying. They were, simply a commodity to you,” Judge Hiddleston said.
In one crossing, on 25 October 2022, more than 640 people were rescued by the Italian authorities after they attempted to cross the Mediterranean Sea in a wooden boat, the NCA said. The boat was taken into port in Sicily and two bodies were recovered.
On a number of occasions, Ebid was maintaining communication with criminal associates during the crossings, the NCA said.
Ebid told an associate that migrants were not allowed to carry phones with them on the boats as he sought to avoid law enforcement, according to a conversation recorded by NCA surveillance officers.
“Tell them guys anyone caught with a phone will be killed, thrown in the sea,” Ebid said.
‘Cruel nature’
Jacque Beer, regional head of investigation at the NCA, said the “cruel nature” of Ebid’s business was “demonstrated by the callous way he spoke of throwing migrants into the sea if they didn’t follow his rules”.
“To him they were just a source of profit,” Beer added.
Ebid arrived in the UK in October 2022 as an asylum seeker after crossing the English Channel in a small boat. He had previously spent five years in jail in Italy for drug offences, according to reports in UK media.
The smuggler was arrested in Hounslow, west London, in June 2023 after the NCA and its Italian law enforcement partners were able to link him to several illegal boat crossings.
On a phone seized from Ebid after his arrest, the NCA’s investigators found images of boats, conversations about the possible purchase of vessels, videos of migrants making the journey, and screenshots detailing money transfers.
Ebid pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiring to assist illegal immigration in October 2023, but had claimed he was only a low-ranking member of the criminal network.
This claim was disputed by British prosecutors, and Judge Hiddleston ultimately described Ebid as having held a “significant managerial role within an organised crime group”.
Additional sources • AP