Ahmed Ebid, 42, was today sentenced to 25 years at Southwark Crown Court for conspiring to assist unlawful immigration – it’s believed to be the first conviction of its kind
A man has been jailed for conspiring to assist unlawful immigration in what is believed to be the first conviction for organising crossings of the Mediterranean Sea from the UK.
People smugglerAhmed Ebid was today sentenced to 25 years at Southwark Crown Court for conspiring to assist unlawful immigration. The court heard he helped “ruthlessly and cynically” exploit migrants as part of a £12 million illegal boat crossing operation.
Egyptian-born Ebid, 42, helped organise the movement of nearly 3,800 migrants – including women and children – on just seven fishing boat crossings from North Africa to Italy between October 2022 and June 2023 and some of them made their way to Britain, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said.
Ebid even told an associate to kill and throw into the sea any migrants caught with phones, in a bid to avoid law enforcement, all while he was living in Isleworth, south-west London.
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