On Monday, a major Iraqi-Kurdish network of migrant smugglers to Britain was dismantled. The operation, which took place in the North, led to the largest seizure of nautical equipment ever made in France, announced Thursday, the boss of Ocriest.
During this operation, the investigators discovered, in the northern suburbs of Lille, “a real factory supplying nautical equipment”, explained to Xavier Delrieu, head of Ocriest, the central office specializing in the fight against irregular immigration. There were “13 boats that can carry 50 migrants each, 14 boat engines, 700 life jackets, around 100 air pumps, 700 liters of fuel”.
More than six million euros collected since this summer
Seven people were arrested, four men and three women. Six are brought to justice on Thursday, a woman having been released. Three men are Iraqi-Kurdish, the others, one man and two women, are French.
Investigators have established that since the summer, the criminals had made 80 crossings, 50 of which were successful. They pocketed “80,000 euros per crossing”. The investigation began in January on the basis of Dutch information received by Uro, the Franco-British operational intelligence unit, set up to fight against these smuggling networks in coordination with Europol and several countries (Belgium , Netherlands, Germany).
It was a check on the border between Germany and the Netherlands of young people of French nationality, who were transporting boats. These “small boats” came from Germany, transited through the Netherlands and then arrived on the Côte d’Opale, on the northwest coast of France.
With the Mobile Research Brigade (BRM) of Coquelles (Pas-de-Calais), the investigators then reached the warehouse located near Lille and the operation launched on Monday thanks to a new arrival of boats in coming from Germany.