Cross-Border Bust Disrupts Channel Migrant Smuggling

0:00On March 25th, police across Belgium, France, and Germany arrested 17 people linked to an organized gang that supplied smuggling kids too, traffickers crossing the English Channel. These kids included inflatable boats, outboard motors, and life s, sold for between 9,000 and 17,000 pounds to networks, sending migrants from France to the UK. The equipment came from Asia, shipped through Turkey by sea and land into Germany for storage and warehouses. From there, criminal groups assembled the packages and delivered them to buyers in northern France, sometimes right to the coast for an extra fee. Rates hit 14 locations, seizing 11 boats, one motor, makeshift vests from tire tubes, petrol cans, weapons, gold bars, and nearly 60,000 euros in cash. Britain's National Crime Agency, which joined the effort, estimates the kids could have carried around 1,000 people across the channel. Euro poll called it a major hit to the migrant smuggling supply chain, noting how each overloaded boat averages 66 passengers paying 1 to 2,000 euros apiece, that lets smugglers pocket over 100,000 euros per trip, despite the weak engines and dangerous conditions in busy shipping lanes.

1:13This cross-border take-down, with help from Dutch and UK authorities, cuts off a key pipeline for these deadly operations and saves lives at sea.