Latest news with #FrenchPolice
Al Arabiya
3 hours ago
- Al Arabiya
Suspect linked to Russian language cybercriminal forum arrested in Ukraine
A person suspected of being the administrator for the Russian language cybercriminal forum was arrested in Ukraine, with the assistance of the French police and Europol, the French Public Prosecutor's Office said on Wednesday. Active since 2013, this forum was one of the main hubs for global cybercrime. It facilitated the sale of malware, access to compromised systems, stolen data, and ransomware-related services. The forum was paired with an encrypted Jabber messaging server, facilitating anonymous exchanges between cybercriminals, the statement added.
Telegraph
21 hours ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
My investigation proves the trafficking racket in Calais is evolving at frightening pace
They call it the Opal Coast, and tourism chiefs have not given up trying to attract regular visitors. Adverts boast of 74 miles of beaches, dunes and cliffs, promising a 'breath of French air' to day-trippers, along with a peculiar light that inspired a local painter to come up with the romantic name. What local bigwigs do not mention, of course, is the other visitors to these beaches, namely the hordes of illegal immigrants en route to the UK. It is no exaggeration to say that the mass influx of desperadoes has turned much of the historic and naturally beautiful coastline into a filthy, crime-ridden, third world hell-hole. The French police have started warning respectable visitors about shadowy men with guns. As Prime Minister Keir Starmer launches his latest wheeze to stop the boats – a much derided 'one in one out' agreement with French President Emmanuel Macron – I have begun my own research into the crisis. Step one was a quick recce by a small investigation team. What they witnessed in just 48 hours last week, raises alarming new questions about the attitude of the French authorities, and the way in which the multimillion pound people smuggling business is rapidly evolving. That the French police are no match for the hardened criminals, behind what is now a highly sophisticated and increasingly efficient global operation, is well known. What is new is their efforts to hide it. Amid mounting political pressure over the huge sums of UK taxpayer money they receive to help stop the boats, the gendarmes appear to be turning on the British media. Turn up with a notebook or a camera, and it is not the people smugglers, but the police, who get in the way. But first, to the dismal state of the Opal Coast and the once elegant little towns, where pavements, supermarkets and public transport hubs are now dominated by throngs of penniless young men from north Africa, Asia and the Middle East. They hang around train stations, loiter on street corners and do not bother with litter bins, a habit that is despoiling roadsides, woods and beaches. Verges and lay-bys are a fetid mess of discarded food wrappers, plastic bottles, crushed tin cans and soiled rags. Ditches have been turned into open air toilets, with migrants squatting in full view of passing traffic. Bushes and scrubland are littered with human faeces. Drone footage reveals hundreds, if not thousands, of these impoverished souls camping out in the woods, but it would be misleading to suggest they are hiding. The French authorities know exactly where they are, but do nothing. Very evidently, most of those hoping to get to the UK have little more than the shabby clothes they are wearing – which begs a very important question. How on earth can they afford the ticket to England? According to received wisdom, a place on what many migrants now call the 'taxi service' across the Channel to the UK costs between £1,000 and £1,500. That is the equivalent of the average annual income in places like Eritrea and Sudan, where many begin their journey. It is like asking a jobless Brit to stump up £30,000. Really? Well, perhaps not. We talked to one migrant who may unwittingly have let the cat out of the bag. Speaking in broken English, he seemed to be saying he would not be paying a penny. If true, it sounds very much as if certain smugglers have begun to offer a 'buy now pay later' scheme. This would be a whole new ballgame. Are we now importing people who arrive in our country heavily indebted to criminal gangs? While they wait for their big moment – a place on the next launch – migrants doss down in shabby tents and other makeshift shelters in woodland camps, subsisting on handouts from refugee charities and crates of beer from the local supermarché. In scenes reminiscent of the river Ganges, they wash their clothes in canals and drift between towns and encampments on foot or by public transport. Which brings us to the questionable role of certain French coach companies. Periodically, large white buses – a state-run service that currently costs just one euro to board – pull up at unmarked stops along the coast, disgorging passengers who are very obviously trying to get to Britain. What are the operators doing, knowingly transporting asylum seekers from urban areas to locations within walking distance of departure points for the boats? According to the French press, the drivers hate their involuntary role in the racket. Apparently, there are frequent fights between passengers, especially when news travels that a boat is about to depart, and there's a stampede for seats. The drivers say some migrants board buses carrying life jackets, leaving zero doubt as to where they are heading. So far from stopping and detaining migrants, the police can be observed enabling their passage, sometimes going so far as to escort the coaches to drop-off points. What a joke! As my team recorded all this on smart phones, it was the police, not the migrants, who became aggressive. They surrounded my researchers, demanding to see their passports, searching their car, and claiming that they needed press passes. If only they asked as many questions of the shady characters making their way to Britain. French law is clear: reporters, including so-called 'citizen journalists' without formal credentials, are entitled to go about their work in public places. Stung, perhaps, by recent embarrassing images showing how little they are doing, it seems the gendarmes have now resorted to trying to block the media. Unfortunately for them, the sheer scale of this crisis now makes it impossible to conceal. Hanging around by the D601 road was a particularly sinister character. Heavily tattooed, he gave his name as Azad and said he was Kurdish. He claimed to have been living in Germany for 10 years. Inked beneath one eye, and on his forearm, were the unmistakable outlines of AK-47s. He had the air of a man used to being watched, with a lot to hide. Everything about him screamed people smuggler. Luckily for him, the French authorities don't seem to like asking people like him any awkward questions.
Daily Mail
5 days ago
- Daily Mail
ROBERT HARDMAN: Rocks, petrol bombs and cries of Allahu Akbar - and proof Starmer's new deal to stop the small boats is already doomed
Dawn has yet to break and the rocks are already flying, followed by blazing bits of rubbish. The French police in riot gear are doing their best to hold the line, launching tear gas at the 50 rioters who then turn their attention to the parked car belonging to Mail photographer, Roland Hoskins. With repeated cries of 'Allahu Akbar', they hurl a 20-litre plastic tank of petrol next to the car and then throw flaming projectiles at it in the hope it will explode. Roland runs out from behind the police lines, kicks the tank aside and manages to drive his car to safety as the battle rages on. This is not some lawless inner city sink estate. It is Gravelines, a sleepy (and, at 5am, sleeping) French seaside town which happens to be one of just 287 in all of France to boast the highest four-rosette rating in the nation's annual 'Ville Fleurie' contest for the prettiest communities. Right now, though, it is more like a jihadi war zone. And it's all because of a rubber dinghy. These rioters have been trying to launch an illegal inflatable and sneak 70 migrants across Britain, netting another six-figure sum for the human traffic gangs who despatch up to a dozen of these boats each day. The smugglers are currently enjoying their best year ever – with more than 22,000 illegal entries to the UK thus far. With this punctured boat confiscated and on the back of a police truck, the rioters finally concede defeat and vanish into the dunes (with no arrests). Sadly, though, yesterday's police victory was very much the exception, not the rule, as I have learned during my trip to Gravelines this week. The town is a pocket of old-world charm next to the vast industrial complex of Dunkirk. This year is the 85th anniversary of Operation Dynamo, the heroic evacuation of the British Army after the fall of France. Now, a new fleet of 'little ships' are back on the coast around Dunkirk performing exactly the same role, but with a very different clientele. They used to call these migrants 'les clandestines' back in the days when the smugglers hid them in the back of a lorry. There is nothing remotely clandestine about them any more. This is brazen lawlessness on an epic scale. Rewind to the same part of Gravelines the previous morning. I have been here for all of five minutes when an outburst of Middle Eastern shouting is followed by the 'thwup!' of a 30ft inflatable people-smuggling boat with a huge outboard engine being dropped in the water. The first passengers jump aboard. This is not happening on some remote stretch of windswept beach either. I am in the town centre on the banks of a canal between a main road and the smartest restaurant in Gravelines, L'Eclusier. It is too early for breakfast here but this £1,500-per-person boat will be in Dover in time for brunch, having stopped off en route at a nearby beach to pick up more fare-paying passengers, including plenty of Afghans (the current nationality du jour) plus assorted Vietnamese, Sudanese, Palestinians and Eritreans. They will include four women and two young children but this will be, overwhelmingly, a cargo of young male adults. 'We are all the world!' shouts one passenger, and he has a point. It's why this service has a new name, one which is instantly understandable in every language the world over. They don't call this a 'boat'. They call it a 'taxi'. To listen to last week's bullish tones at the Franco-British summit between President Macron and Sir Keir Starmer, you might imagine that sights like this were a thing of the past. We have been assured French police will now intervene up to '300 metres offshore' to 'stop ze boats'. This is in addition to a 'one-in, one-out' scheme whereby Britain can return rejected asylum-seekers to France in exchange for equal numbers of pre-approved asylum-seekers. On which point, I find miraculous agreement across the board, from the migrants, the charity sector and the French police to Nigel Farage. All are adamant: it is not going to make the slightest difference. So say the locals, too. Expert migration lawyer, Olivier Rangeon, tells me that the new '300 metre' rule still needs European Commission clearance. And, besides, the police have told him they cannot enforce it. 'It's not safe and the migrants are too numerous.' I meet Bertrand Ringot, who has been mayor of Gravelines for 25 years through multiple migrant crises on this coast. 'The only way to resolve the situation is for Britain to reduce its attraction to the migrants and to become more like France,' he says. Nor is he some hardline Right-winger, but a proud member of France's Socialist Party. 'We believe in humanity but with firmness,' adds this 59-year-old ex-member of the French rowing squad. 'Britain needs more severe rules. And, of course, identity cards.' Back at the canal, I seriously wonder if this latest boat will ever reach the sea, let alone to England. The skipper is an utter moron. He reverses the boat straight into the canal wall and it bounces off again just as two men try to jump in. They land in the water inches from the propeller and there is much Arabic shouting. Captain Calamity is still trying to circle round for another go when a blue flashing light tells us the cops are finally on their way. He realises it's time to head for sea. Pronto. We know exactly where the boat taxi is going next – up the canal, out to sea and round to Plage de Petit-Fort-Philippe. This is two miles of beach next to Gravelines and France's largest nuclear power station. It is flanked by sand dunes and bushes, a perfect waiting area for the migrants. Even as we wait to see our boat, a much larger overloaded migrant dinghy is setting off with around 100 on board. Its engine will have enough petrol to get the boat into UK territorial waters whereupon the fuel supply will deliberately run out, forcing the UK authorities to rescue them. A coastguard speedboat keeps an eye on them but makes no effort to intervene, let alone uphold French maritime law. This clearly states that anyone operating an outboard above six horsepower must pass the test for a boat licence called a 'permis bateau', on pain of arrest and/or a fine of €1,500 (£1,300). This engine is at least 40 horsepower. As Reform leader Nigel Farage tells me later: 'Every dinghy should be stopped by the French as any private person would be.' However, the coastguard just waves them off. There is absolutely no chance that Captain Calamity has a 'permis bateau'. But, as he comes into view, the coastguard makes no attempt to check him out either. Whereupon a small army suddenly comes swooping down from the dunes – instantly visible in bright orange lifejackets fresh from the local supermarket. Three smugglers are in charge, each covering his face with a black and white Arab keffiyeh, and trying to keep a semblance of order. As the taxi boat gets within wading distance, a smuggler waves the first group forward, including all the women. Far behind them all, I suddenly spot a family of four coming across the sand. Karwan and Sara Izadi, and their two children, Mohammed, six, and Alina, four, have none of the gung-ho confidence of the young men. Sara is in tears. Karwan appears to be hesitating. They briefly explain they are from Iran, have come via Turkey and Germany, and have spent more than a week living in the dunes waiting for their taxi boat. Either they have paid well over the £1,500 entry-level price or the other migrants are being chivalrous but the Izadis go straight to the front of the queue. Two smugglers hoist the children on their shoulders as the parents follow, their mother now up to her armpits in water. It takes half an hour to fill the boat but there are no police to be seen throughout. As Calamity points his bow vaguely in the direction of England, the coastguard crew come alongside. Are they actually going to check Calamity's papers? Of course not. They want to hand extra lifejackets for the migrants who never got round to buying one. The dozens of punters who failed to get on board today trudge back to the dunes. Some try to remonstrate with the traffickers but there seems little in the way of a complaints department at People Smugglers Inc. I try to talk to those who must wait for another day. One is Kuwaiti. A trio are Palestinian. Where from? 'Gaza.' I ask how they managed to get out of there and they bristle instantly. 'Are you Hebrew?' asks one, before a smuggler barks orders that no one is to talk to the press. It is 6:37am French time and the action is over for another day. Captain Calamity clearly manages to get picked up in British waters because, at 10:35 UK time, the Mail spots the Izadi family stepping off the Border Force patrol boat, Defender, at the Jetfoil Terminal in Dover Harbour, the reception point for migrants. It's been five hours door to door. That's not dissimilar to a Calais-Dover ferry crossing in high season by the time you add in the queues and customs checks. The British Government later confirms today's arrivals: six small boats and a total of 398 new 'irregular migrants' in need of board and lodging. Back in France, I still want to see if Sir Keir's 'crackdown' is hitting morale. It seems not. 'I will be in England soon,' says Ahmed Babeker, 24, from Sudan, who arrived here via Turkey. He is buying food at the makeshift camp in the woods near Loon-Plage. It's a rough spot. A Yemeni migrant was shot here the other day and a British photographer was chased off at knife point last week. But Ahmed is cheerful. 'Each week my family pay a little more,' he tells me, explaining that he has been here since November, waiting for his loved ones to pay a gang the requisite sum via the ancient money exchange system, 'hawala'. Once the account is settled, he'll be on his way. His plan? 'I want an education and then I want to be an electrical engineer,' he says, 'maybe in Liverpool or Birmingham.' At a smaller camp in a disused Calais loading bay, I find another Sudanese migrant, Salah Abdul Salam. He has already been granted asylum in Sweden where he has lived for six years and had a pre-Covid job at McDonald's. He shows me his Swedish residency papers and ID card. However, he's had enough of Malmo. 'Sweden is too cold. I want to go England. The English system is good.' As Gravelines mayor, Bertrand Ringot argues that is the root of the issue. He talks me through the problems in his town, where the daily mess left by the migrants requires six extra cleaners, costing €300,000 (£260,000) per year; where many women and girls are too scared to travel on buses, which are free to all and often full of gangs of foreign youths; where people are fed up with strangers in their gardens gathering firewood and peeping through windows. 'My message to Starmer is: change the conditions for staying in England. Work with us in Europe and make it harder to work in England without a permit. This situation is a time-bomb.' In the meantime, the French could at least enforce their own laws. As mentioned earlier, their rules ban unlicensed use of engines over six horsepower, meaning they could simply apprehend illegal 'taxi' drivers and tow their boats back to port. That's just what happens in European waters, as I know to my cost. Last year, on holiday with my family in Sicily, I sailed my rented boat into an unmarked exclusion zone. I was suddenly apprehended by an Italian patrol boat, held for an hour and ordered to pay a €320 fine or else face arrest. I duly coughed up. We have all heard of 'two-tier' justice. But it is certainly not confined to Britain. It's alive and well here in northern France, too. Welcome to the 'deux etages plages'.
Telegraph
5 days ago
- Telegraph
Smugglers clash with French riot police after launching migrant boats
French riot police clashed with people smugglers in a coastal town a day after hundreds of migrants arrived in the UK on small boats. The smugglers pelted officers with rocks and used engine oil to set fire to benches and debris in Gravelines in the early hours of Friday morning. Britain and France have agreed to crack down on illegal Channel crossings, with French authorities trying to stop them from leaving their shores. On Thursday, however, hundreds of migrants managed to evade French police and board dinghies bound for Britain. The Telegraph witnessed dozens of officers armed with riot shields, assault rifles and helmets deployed on the streets of the seaside town, north-east of Calais, on Friday. Volleys of tear gas from grenade launchers were fired at the smugglers during the short-lived confrontation, leaving the town wreathed in a veil of acrid white smoke. Barricades were set up near the exit point of the River Aa which runs through the centre of the town and is used as a departure point for 'taxi boats' by the smugglers. It is believed the smugglers assaulted the officers as a diversionary tactic to, unsuccessfully, try and secretly launch dinghies full with migrants to Dover. Some of the smugglers, who were of Middle Eastern origin, jeered and mocked the officers while filming on their phones. Two of the men were seen wearing bright orange life jackets around their necks. The disorder broke out at around 5:30 am and lasted approximately 20 minutes before the smugglers were dispersed and fled back to their camps near Loon-Plage, a short 15-minute drive away to the east. The clashes came after gendarmes failed to stop two dinghies crammed with approximately 70 migrants from sailing on Thursday morning from the shores of Gravelines beach to Dover. A salvo of tear gas had done little to stop the crowd of around 200 migrants, including a family with a six-year-old son and four-year-old girl from trying to climb on. On one of the dinghies, the smugglers had jumped overboard before the vessel was intercepted by a French police patrol boat and escorted into British waters. The smugglers were allowed to walk back to their camps unhindered and try again the following day. It is estimated that 320 migrants successfully arrived in the UK on Thursday via small boats. Sir Keir Starmer, in a meeting with Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, in London that same day said he was 'very concerned' over smuggling routes through Germany. Sir Keir said the Government was determined to intervene at every stage of the people-smuggling journey, citing last week's agreement with France which allows the UK to return some migrants to France. He said: 'For a long time I've been very concerned about the fact that engines and component parts of the boats that are being used are travelling through and being stored in Germany. 'But they can't be seized because the law didn't accommodate for a country that had left the EU and therefore needed to be amended.'
France 24
13-07-2025
- Politics
- France 24
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