
Five people have been arrested and charged as part of a National Crime Agency investigation targeting a suspected organised crime group involved in smuggling migrants OUT of the UK in lorries.
It followed a surveillance operation on Monday 26 and Tuesday 27 January which saw a number of taxis drive down from London to a location near Whitstable, Kent.
Three cabbies Robuil Islam, 49, Qasim Jan, 55, and Shamim Ahmed, 47, were all separately arrested on suspicion of facilitating illegal immigration, as was a 32-year-old Romanian lorry driver Ivan Garaga.
A 43-year-old man, the suspected ringleader of the network, was also arrested at a location in the New Cross area of London. Around £30,000 cash was also seized from a property.
The operation was supported by the Metropolitan Police Service, Kent Police and the Port of Dover Police.
The criminal group are alleged to have been involved in a number of attempts to move predominantly Pakistani and Bangladeshi nationals out of the UK in lorries, in an attempt to avoid border controls and French entry restrictions.
All five were subsequently charged with conspiring to facilitate illegal immigration, and appeared at magistrates’ courts in the Kent and south east London areas on Wednesday 28 January.
NCA Branch Commander Saju Sasikumar said: “This operation has been the culmination of an investigation that has been ongoing for a number of months.
“Organised crime groups involved in people smuggling risk the safety of those they transport, and also threaten the border security of both the UK and France.
“Tackling organised immigration crime remains a top priority for the NCA and this investigation is one of around 100 ongoing investigations into networks or individuals in the top tier of this type of criminality.”

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