“Merchants of death”: up to 15 years in prison for 18 members of a “sprawling” network of smugglers in the Channel

Sentences of up to 15 years in prison were handed down on Tuesday in Lille against 18 members of a “sprawling” network of smugglers in the Channel, mainly Iraqi-Kurdish, described by the prosecution as “dealers of dead”.

This network, suspected of having organized more than 10,000 clandestine crossings according to the British authorities, was according to the French investigation one of the main organizers of migrant crossings to England via the Channel between 2020 and 2022. In this section, which follows several other trials, the court followed the prosecutor's requests by imposing the heaviest sentence, 15 years of imprisonment with a two-thirds security period, against a 26-year-old Iraqi, Mirkhan Rasoul .

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Convicted of having controlled the entire network, including from his prison cell in France, he was also given a permanent ban from French territory and a fine of 200,000 euros. Dressed in a black quilted vest and sporting a dark beard, he calmly listened to the pronouncement of his sentence behind a glass box.

Already convicted twice for aiding illegal residence, he was expelled from the hearing on the third day of the trial in October after threatening interpreters. The 17 other defendants, including a woman, were sentenced to sentences ranging from one to twelve years' imprisonment and a fine of up to 150,000 euros. All were sentenced to permanent ban from the territory. Arrest warrants were issued against nine of these defendants, convicted in absentia.

Profit as the only motivation

The court also ordered confiscation of property: several thousand euros in cash, a German sedan, the return of Dutch, British, Iraqi or Canadian identity papers. This trial was held between the end of September and the beginning of October, before the Specialized Interregional Jurisdiction (Jirs) of Lille.

At the start of her requisitions, the prosecutor described a “sprawling case” with international ramifications. “The defendants are not volunteers helping their neighbors but merchants of death,” accused the prosecutor, describing canoes loaded with passengers “up to 15 times their theoretical capacity”. More than 50 searches led to the seizure of 1,200 life jackets, nearly 150 inflatable boats and 50 boat engines, during operations carried out jointly by France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. United, coordinated by the Europol and Eurojust agencies.

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“This network was one of the most prolific we have seen in terms of the number of crossings it was able to organize,” Craig Turner, the deputy director of Britain's national enforcement agency, said in a statement on Tuesday. Against Crime (NCA). This network is suspected of having organized more than 10,000 clandestine crossings of the Channel to the United Kingdom, and each trip was to bring in around 100,000 euros, according to the NCA.

The only motivation of these smugglers “was profit, and they did not care about the fate of the migrants whom they put at sea in totally inappropriate and dangerous boats”, added Craig Turner.