Latest news with #AhmedEbid
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Yahoo
The small boats kingpin who smuggled 3,800 migrants into Europe
A quiet and leafy street in Isleworth doesn't immediately spring to mind as the obvious place to find a control centre for an international people-smuggling enterprise. But in a taxpayer-funded home shared with his wife and child, that's where Ahmed Ebid helped mastermind at least seven crossings over perilous waters around Europe, involving thousands of people and resulting in at least two deaths. 'Tell them guys anyone caught with a phone will be killed, threw in the sea,' Ebid told one of his associates when discussing arrangements for bringing migrants by boat from north Africa to Europe on one of the dangerous illegal crossings. His threat indicates the level of compassion he had for those whose passage he was helping to assist. It was one of multiple crossings that Ebid played a part in arranging from his flat in west London. He didn't know that on this occasion, his conversation was being recorded. Surveillance officers from Britain's National Crime Agency (NCA) were on his trail by then. Law enforcement was closing in and Ebid, 42, who had entered the UK illegally himself on a small boat, would soon be caught. But not before he had helped smuggle thousands of desperate migrants into Italian waters as part of a network of criminals making millions from the perilous scheme. This week, he was jailed for 25 years for masterminding the smuggling of thousands of people across the Mediterranean into Europe. He had held, said Judge Adam Hiddleston, a 'significant managerial role within an organised crime group'. The treatment of the migrants, on his orders and in his name, was 'horrifying', said Judge Hiddleston. 'They were simply a commodity to you,' he told Ebid. 'You talked of them in terms of units, not as people, referring to them as 'cartons'.' It is believed that Ebid, an Egyptian, crossed the Channel with his wife and child when he came to Britain in October 2022. He moved into an address on Church Road, Isleworth. It was this unlikely base where he worked with people-smuggling networks in north Africa to organise transport across a stretch of water almost 3,000 miles away. But having previously worked as a fisherman in the Mediterranean, Ebid had what a prosecutor later described as 'intimate knowledge' of those waters, allowing him to assist with the illegal scheme even by phone from a long distance away. He apparently knew how it should be done, not only telling an associate that migrants must not carry phones on the boats but also advising on how much drinking water the passengers would require during the crossings. He had been in the UK for only a few weeks when he started assisting in the illegal journeys of other migrants across the Mediterranean. More than 640 of them were rescued by Italian authorities after attempting to cross the sea from Libya in a wooden boat in October 2022. The vessel was taken into port in Sicily and two bodies were recovered. In December that year, 265 migrants who had departed from Benghazi in Libya in a 65ft fishing boat were found adrift in the Mediterranean and rescued by the Italian coastguard. The following April, two further search-and-rescue operations were mounted after distress calls were made to the Italian coastguard. In both cases, boats were found with more than 600 migrants on board. There is evidence that between 2022 and 2023, Ebid was involved in at least seven separate crossings, carrying a total of almost 3,800 people into Italian waters. Some of them eventually made their way to Britain. He played a part in moving and accommodating migrants before their journey by sea, and in dealing with paperwork, he would later admit. He was also in regular phone contact with associates on the boats as they made the crossings, prosecutor Freddy Hookway told a judge at Southwark Crown Court in March. Ebid, he said, appeared to be providing assistance in real time. In an effort to go below the radar, he spoke in code about 'fishing' and referred to the boats as 'cars'. The NCA described them more accurately as 'death traps'. At least some of the migrants who paid to make these crossings had started their journey in Egypt, according to Italian media reports. From there they travelled to the Libyan coast, their departure point for Italy. Working from home in Britain, Ebid managed the logistics and communications required for the crossings, including the transfer of the migrants from Egypt, Il Giornale reported. He is said to have played a 'vital' role in the smuggling operation. It was a risky business but a highly lucrative one. Each migrant was charged about £3,200 on average, netting more than £12 million in total for the criminals involved. Ebid was said to have claimed he made €15,000 (almost £12,650) for his part in it. Prosecutors believe the true sum was far higher, with Ebid describing it as 'a living'. It apparently wasn't his first involvement in criminal activity. He reportedly had a previous conviction in Italy in 2017 for attempting to import more than a ton of cannabis. On the afternoon of June 21 2023, NCA officers swooped in London. Dressed in white T-shirt, grey shorts and sunglasses, Ebid was arrested in the street in Hounslow on suspicion of assisting unlawful immigration. He was charged last year with people-smuggling offences as part of an international investigation into the organised crime network that was moving migrants into Europe. The probe also involved Italian prosecutors, coastguard and the Guardia di Finanza, an Italian law enforcement agency. Credit: National Crime Agency Investigators had bugged Ebid's home. When they seized a phone from him after his arrest, they found images of boats, conversations about the possible purchase of vessels, videos of migrants making the journey and screenshots detailing money transfers. They also found a notebook Ebid had, with pages of co-ordinates showing a route from north Africa to the southern coast of Italy. In October 2023, he pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiring to assist illegal immigration. But he claimed he was merely a low-ranking member of the network. Prosecutors disputed this. He was a key figure, they argued. One who 'preyed upon the desperation of migrants to ship them across the Mediterranean in death trap boats', as Jacque Beer, the NCA's regional head of investigation, put it. Ebid's case highlights the international nature of the problem of criminal networks cashing in by orchestrating hazardous small-boat crossings for migrants hoping to reach Western Europe. The trafficking of people from the Libyan coast to Italy has been going on for many years, despite various crackdowns designed to prevent the journeys. A European Commission report after a mission to Libya at the end of 2004 found that about 15,000 migrants had tried to reach the Italian coast illegally by crossing the Mediterranean. Almost 2,000 had died during the journey. In 2010, Italy and Libya reached an agreement to try to curb irregular immigration and the numbers attempting the crossing declined. But that wasn't the end of it. In 2023, an estimated 212,000 migrants and refugees attempted to cross the central Mediterranean Sea from Libya, Algeria and Tunisia to Europe, according to a report by the United Nations Refugee Agency and the International Organisation for Migration – a 52 per cent increase compared with 2022. More than 3,105 perished or went missing at sea while trying to make the journey in 2023, compared with 2,500 the previous year. 'However, the real number of dead and missing along these routes is believed to be higher as many incidents go unreported or undetected,' said the report. The nature of the business run by figures such as Ebid is one that not only breaches immigration laws but endangers lives for financial gain, as Tim Burton, the special prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, noted this week. In Ebid's case, he 'showed a complete disregard for the safety of thousands of people, whose lives were put at serious risk', said Burton. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer came to power last year with a promise to 'smash the gangs' responsible for people smuggling, and welcomed the jailing of Ebid. In reality, smashing the gangs isn't all that easy, as the ringleaders tend to base themselves overseas. Smashing Ebid's operation is a start. The challenge will be in tracking down and bringing to justice others like him out there. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. 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Telegraph
22-05-2025
- Telegraph
The small boats kingpin who smuggled 3,800 migrants into Europe
A quiet and leafy street in Isleworth, west London, doesn't immediately spring to mind as the obvious place to find a control centre for an international people-smuggling enterprise. But in a taxpayer-funded home shared with his wife and child, that's where Ahmed Ebid helped mastermind at least seven crossings over perilous waters around Europe, involving thousands of people and resulting in at least two deaths. 'Tell them guys anyone caught with a phone will be killed, threw in the sea [sic],' Ebid told one of his associates when discussing arrangements for bringing migrants by boat from north Africa to Europe on one of the dangerous illegal crossings. His threat indicates the level of compassion he had for those whose passage he was helping to assist. It was one of multiple crossings that Ebid played a part in arranging from his flat in west London. He didn't know that on this occasion, his conversation was being recorded. Surveillance officers from Britain's National Crime Agency (NCA) were on his trail by then. Law enforcement was closing in and Ebid, 42, who had entered the UK illegally himself on a small boat, would soon be caught. But not before he had helped smuggle thousands of desperate migrants into Italian waters as part of a network of criminals making millions from the perilous scheme. This week, he was jailed for 25 years for masterminding the smuggling of thousands of people across the Mediterranean into Europe. He had held, said Judge Adam Hiddleston, a 'significant managerial role within an organised crime group'. The treatment of the migrants, on his orders and in his name, was 'horrifying', said Judge Hiddleston. 'They were simply a commodity to you,' he told Ebid. 'You talked of them in terms of units, not as people, referring to them as 'cartons'.' It is believed that Ebid, an Egyptian, crossed the Channel with his wife and child when he came to Britain in October 2022. He moved into an address on Church Road, Isleworth. It was this unlikely base where he worked with people-smuggling networks in north Africa to organise transport across a stretch of water almost 3,000 miles away. But having previously worked as a fisherman in the Mediterranean, Ebid had what a prosecutor later described as 'intimate knowledge' of those waters, allowing him to assist with the illegal scheme even by phone from a long distance away. He apparently knew how it should be done, not only telling an associate that migrants must not carry phones on the boats but also advising on how much drinking water the passengers would require during the crossings. He had been in the UK for only a few weeks when he started assisting in the illegal journeys of other migrants across the Mediterranean. More than 640 of them were rescued by Italian authorities after attempting to cross the sea from Libya in a wooden boat in October 2022. The vessel was taken into port in Sicily and two bodies were recovered. In December that year, 265 migrants who had departed from Benghazi in Libya in a 65ft fishing boat were found adrift in the Mediterranean and rescued by the Italian coastguard. The following April, two further search-and-rescue operations were mounted after distress calls were made to the Italian coastguard. In both cases, boats were found with more than 600 migrants on board. There is evidence that between 2022 and 2023, Ebid was involved in at least seven separate crossings, carrying a total of almost 3,800 people into Italian waters. Some of them eventually made their way to Britain. He played a part in moving and accommodating migrants before their journey by sea, and in dealing with paperwork, he would later admit. He was also in regular phone contact with associates on the boats as they made the crossings, prosecutor Freddy Hookway told a judge at Southwark Crown Court in March. Ebid, he said, appeared to be providing assistance in real time. In an effort to go below the radar, he spoke in code about 'fishing' and referred to the boats as 'cars'. The NCA described them more accurately as 'death traps'. At least some of the migrants who paid to make these crossings had started their journey in Egypt, according to Italian media reports. From there they travelled to the Libyan coast, their departure point for Italy. Working from home in Britain, Ebid managed the logistics and communications required for the crossings, including the transfer of the migrants from Egypt, Il Giornale reported. He is said to have played a 'vital' role in the smuggling operation. It was a risky business but a highly lucrative one. Each migrant was charged about £3,200 on average, netting more than £12 million in total for the criminals involved. Ebid was said to have claimed he made €15,000 (almost £12,650) for his part in it. Prosecutors believe the true sum was far higher, with Ebid describing it as 'a living'. It apparently wasn't his first involvement in criminal activity. He reportedly had a previous conviction in Italy in 2017 for attempting to import more than a ton of cannabis. On the afternoon of June 21 2023, NCA officers swooped in London. Dressed in a white T-shirt, grey shorts and sunglasses, Ebid was arrested in the street in Hounslow on suspicion of assisting unlawful immigration. He was charged last year with people-smuggling offences as part of an international investigation into the organised crime network that was moving migrants into Europe. The probe also involved Italian prosecutors, coastguard and the Guardia di Finanza, an Italian law enforcement agency. Investigators had bugged Ebid's home. When they seized a phone from him after his arrest, they found images of boats, conversations about the possible purchase of vessels, videos of migrants making the journey and screenshots detailing money transfers. They also found a notebook Ebid had with pages of co-ordinates showing a route from north Africa to the southern coast of Italy. In October 2023, he pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiring to assist illegal immigration. But he claimed he was merely a low-ranking member of the network. Prosecutors disputed this. He was a key figure, they argued. One who 'preyed upon the desperation of migrants to ship them across the Mediterranean in death trap boats', as Jacque Beer, the NCA's regional head of investigation, put it. Ebid's case highlights the international nature of the problem of criminal networks cashing in by orchestrating hazardous small-boat crossings for migrants hoping to reach Western Europe. The trafficking of people from the Libyan coast to Italy has been going on for many years, despite various crackdowns designed to prevent the journeys. A European Commission report after a mission to Libya at the end of 2004 found that about 15,000 migrants had tried to reach the Italian coast illegally by crossing the Mediterranean. Almost 2,000 had died during the journey. In 2010, Italy and Libya reached an agreement to try to curb irregular immigration, and the numbers attempting the crossing declined. But that wasn't the end of it. In 2023, an estimated 212,000 migrants and refugees attempted to cross the central Mediterranean Sea from Libya, Algeria and Tunisia to Europe, according to a report by the United Nations Refugee Agency and the International Organisation for Migration – a 52 per cent increase compared with 2022. More than 3,105 perished or went missing at sea while trying to make the journey in 2023, compared with 2,500 the previous year. 'However, the real number of dead and missing along these routes is believed to be higher, as many incidents go unreported or undetected,' said the report. The nature of the business run by figures such as Ebid is one that not only breaches immigration laws but endangers lives for financial gain, as Tim Burton, the special prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, noted this week. In Ebid's case, he 'showed a complete disregard for the safety of thousands of people, whose lives were put at serious risk', said Burton. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer came to power last year with a promise to 'smash the gangs' responsible for people smuggling, and welcomed the jailing of Ebid. In reality, smashing the gangs isn't all that easy, as the ringleaders tend to base themselves overseas. Smashing Ebid's operation is a start. The challenge will be in tracking down and bringing to justice others like him out there.
Epoch Times
21-05-2025
- Epoch Times
People Smuggling Ringleader Jailed for 25 Years After Mediterranean Crossings
The first person in Britain to be convicted of smuggling people across the Mediterranean has been sentenced to 25 years in prison. Ahmed Ebid, 42, originally from Egypt and living in Isleworth, London was found to be a key organiser in a criminal network that moved around 4,000 people from Libya to Italy between 2022 and 2023. He was arrested in Hounslow in June last year after a joint investigation by the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA) and Italian authorities. Judge Adam Hiddleston told Southwark Crown Court on Tuesday that Ebid was involved in a conspiracy that 'generated millions of pounds' and that he must have benefited from 'a significant amount' of the proceeds. He described the sums involved as 'truly staggering' and said the money came from the 'hard-earned savings of desperate individuals' who were 'ruthlessly and cynically exploited' by Ebid and the wider criminal group. Dangerous Crossings, Deadly Outcomes The NCA linked Ebid to at least seven separate crossings over a two-year period, with individual boats carrying hundreds of migrants at a time. In one case, in October 2022, more than 640 people were rescued by Italian authorities from a wooden boat launched from Libya. Related Stories 1/31/2025 4/22/2025 Two bodies were recovered from that vessel. Another boat intercepted in December 2022 had departed from Benghazi carrying 265 migrants, while in April 2023, two further vessels carrying over 600 people each were found adrift in the Mediterranean. The scale and frequency of these journeys were underpinned by a ruthless business model. Migrants were typically charged around £3,200 each for the dangerous passage, a trade estimated to have generated more than £12 million for the criminals involved. 'Ebid was part of a crime network who preyed upon the desperation of migrants to ship them across the Mediterranean in death trap boats,' said the NCA regional head of investigation, Jacque Beer. Surveillance, Seized Phones, a Threatening Warning Ebid's role came under scrutiny through extensive surveillance and digital evidence. The NCA recovered messages, videos, and financial records from a phone seized during his arrest, including conversations about purchasing vessels and footage of migrant crossings. In a call intercepted by officers, Ebid instructed an associate to threaten passengers against carrying mobile phones, a measure aimed at evading detection by authorities. 'Tell them guys anyone caught with a phone will be killed, threw in the sea,' he was heard saying. The judge described Ebid's treatment of the migrants as 'horrifying,' telling the court that he had referred to them as 'cartons.' 'The important thing to you was that each paid up the exorbitant fare that was charged for their crossing and that nobody did anything to compromise your operation such as by carrying a mobile phone. As we know, if they did, you were prepared to instruct others to threaten them with death. 'You demonstrated no empathy or care whatsoever for these desperate and vulnerable men, women and children,' Hiddleston said. Government Reacts The conviction was welcomed by minister for border security and asylum, Dame Angela Eagle, who linked the case to the government's broader efforts to strengthen UK border defences. 'For too long our borders have been undermined by vile people smuggling gangs putting lives at risk for cash,' she said. Eagle also stressed the government's commitment to stop people smuggling gangs and restore control over UK's borders. The Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, currently making its way through Parliament, Under the bill, people selling and handling boat parts suspected of being used in migrant Channel crossings could face up to 14 years in prison. Last year, the government launched A sanctions regime targeting individuals and entities involved in people smuggling includes asset freezes and travel bans, aiming to disrupt the financial networks supporting smuggling operations. Despite these initiatives, illegal Channel crossings have reached record levels this year, with over PA Media contributed to this report.
The National
20-05-2025
- The National
Egyptian who ran $16m people-smuggling operation from London jailed for 25 years
An Egyptian fisherman who helped run a £12 million ($16 million) people-smuggling operation, and who once told an associate to kill and throw into the sea any migrants caught with phones, has been jailed for 25 years. Ahmed Ebid, 42, worked out of a house in London, provided for him and his family by the British authorities only three weeks after he arrived by small boat. Ebid, believed to be the first person convicted of organising illegal Mediterranean crossings from the UK, was working with networks in North Africa to organise boats, bringing over hundreds of migrants at a time on dangerous vessels. According to the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA), he was involved in at least seven separate crossings in 2022 and 2023 which carried a total of about 3,800 people into Italian waters. He was initially linked to the smuggling operation after he made calls to satellite phones used by henchmen on board the migrant boats. These were then used to call the Italian coastguard, to relay their position, be towed to safety and taken ashore. Ebid's number was traced to London and the Italians tipped off the NCA, which then bugged his home. In one conversation, he told an associate that migrants were not allowed to carry phones on his boats as he sought to avoid law enforcement. 'Tell them guys anyone caught with a phone will be killed, thrown in the sea,' he said. Ebid was arrested and charged in June 2023 and pleaded guilty to assisting illegal immigration but disputed aspects of the case against him. At a special court sitting known as a Newton Hearing, he claimed he had made only €15,000 ($16,840) from the operation and his involvement was limited to sharing navigational and seafaring advice, which he had learnt as a fisherman in the Mediterranean. He maintained his primary motivation was to move his family to the UK. But prosecutors said he was involved in the sourcing and provision of boats and crews for crossings from Libya to Europe. He was involved in the movement of migrants before the crossings, organised their housing and dealt with paperwork. Two notebooks were seized, one of which contained maritime co-ordinates for the area between Libya and Italy. Ebid's claim to have been a low-level player was rejected by judge Adam Hiddleston, who described him as having a 'significant managerial role within an organised crime group'. Passing sentence, Mr Hiddleston told Ebid that the "conspiracy you were a part of generated millions of pounds" and that he must have been a "beneficiary" of "a significant amount". This "truly staggering" amount of money came from the "hard-earned savings of desperate individuals", who were "ruthlessly and cynically exploited" by Ebid and his fellow criminals. "The treatment of the migrants on your orders and in your name was horrifying,' said the judge. "They were simply a commodity to you. "The important thing to you was that each paid up the exorbitant fare that was charged for their crossing and that nobody did anything to compromise your operation – such as by carrying a mobile phone.' Speaking after sentencing, Tim Burton, for the Crown Prosecution Service, said the Egyptian "played a leading role in a sophisticated operation" that "endangered lives, for his own and others' financial gain". 'Vulnerable people were transported on long sea journeys in ill-equipped fishing vessels completely unsuitable for carrying the large number of passengers who were on board," he added. "His repeated involvement in helping to facilitate these dangerous crossings showed a complete disregard for the safety of thousands of people, whose lives were put at serious risk." Jacque Beer, the NCA's regional head of investigation, explained that many of those Ebid had moved across the Mediterranean would have eventually ended up coming to the UK in small boats. "Ebid was part of a crime network who preyed upon the desperation of migrants to ship them across the Mediterranean in death-trap boats," she said. 'The cruel nature of his 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." The court was told the calculation for the amount of money Ebid had made came from interviews with the migrants carried out by Italian authorities, who passed on that information to the NCA as part of its investigation into Ebid. The average paid by the 3,781 migrants whose passage he organised was £3,272, meaning he made £12,375,212. During a search of his home, two Italian mobile phones were seized along with other devices, on which were found images of boats, conversations about the possible purchase of vessels, videos of migrants making the journey and screenshots detailing money transfers. There were also photographs showing a large amount of cash on a bed. In October 2022, more than 640 migrants were rescued by the Italian authorities after they attempted to cross in a wooden boat from Libya. It was taken into port in Sicily and two bodies were recovered. In another crossing, 265 migrants were rescued by the Italian coastguard from a 20-metre fishing boat found adrift in the Mediterranean after leaving Benghazi, Libya, in early December 2022. In April 2023, two separate search-and-rescue operations were mounted following distress calls to the coastguard. More than 600 migrants were on board each boat. Ebid has a previous conviction for attempting to smuggle a tonne of cannabis into Italy, for which he was sentenced to six years in jail. Police recently arrested suspected people smugglers they say made €30 million ($33.7 million) from taking migrants across the Mediterranean. According to Europol, Egyptians have increasingly been involved in smuggling on routes into and throughout the European Union, including the Mediterranean and western Balkan routes.
Channel 4
20-05-2025
- Channel 4
Man who smuggled nearly 4,000 migrants jailed for 25 years
An Egyptian man has been jailed for 25 years for running a people smuggling operation from a house in Isleworth, West London. Ahmed Ebid was at the helm of an operation that trafficked nearly 4,000 people in fishing boats across the Mediterranean from Africa to Italy, in an operation worth more than £12 million. At sentencing, the judge said he had ruthlessly and cynically exploited desperate people.
