8 hours ago
EXCLUSIVE Ruthless people smuggler who charges £1,200 to transport migrants to the UK boasts: 'French gendarmes do nothing. Do not worry. I am the police'
A ruthless people smuggler last night boasted to an undercover Mail on Sunday reporter that he had no concerns about the French police because they rarely did anything to stop his criminal enterprise.
The Syrian trafficker was demanding £1,200 for a place on an inflatable boat leaving from northern France on Tuesday.
Asked whether French gendarmes will intervene, the brazen gang boss said: 'They don't do anything. Do not worry. I am the police. I do everything. Get to my place and I will get you on a boat.'
His comments come as UK and French authorities are braced for people smuggling gangs to launch large numbers of boats across the Channel during a spell of warm weather this week.
Some 15,000 people have arrived in the UK in small boats so far this year – up 42 per cent on the same period in 2024 – with 1,200 arriving on a single day last Saturday, the highest this year.
Speaking to the MoS reporter last week, a second people smuggler, believed to be an Iraqi, said he was organising a boat for 50 people this week. Asked whether French police would be a problem, he replied: 'No, no problem.'
He added: 'I charge everyone 1,500 [euros]. I put 50 people in the boat. I will give you a safety jacket. I do a good job. Don't worry, brother, I don't take families or babies.'
The trafficker boasted that he had recently sent a boat carrying 48 people to England and gave, via a WhatsApp message, our reporter an address near Dunkirk railway station where he said he could stay until the weather was good enough for a crossing attempt.
A ruthless people smuggler last night boasted to an undercover Mail on Sunday reporter that he had no concerns about the French police because they rarely did anything to stop his criminal enterprise (Pictured: a group of people believed to be migrants leaving Gravelines, France, in search of the UK on May 31)
French police stood back and watched as entire families packed themselves into an overcrowded small boat heading across the Channel to the UK on May 31
'There's a place for food, for sleep – everything. Maybe you will be there for two to three days, and then I'll send you [to England].'
The people smuggler attempts to lure new migrants via his TikTok page, which includes a video of two packed inflatable boats leaving a beach in northern France bound for the UK last Sunday.
In footage apparently filmed last month, a migrant carrying crutches is seen wading through the sea to a waiting inflatable boat crammed with migrants.
Another video shows a line of French police watching a group of migrants on the quayside of a harbour, while another shows officers wearing camouflage uniforms peering through trees at a group of migrants who are sheltering by a fire in a wood.
In another video, posted on the people smuggler's TikTok page last week, a man wearing a headscarf is seen striding through a French migrant camp while brandishing a huge knife.
