The United Kingdom National Crime Agency (NCA) has claimed to have arrested a 29-year-old people smuggler they say has been a major figure in supplying boats to migrants crossing the English Channel illegally.
The NCA say that they arrested 29-year-0ld Iranian national Hewa Rahimpur on May 4th during an operation in east London and say that the Iranian lived in east London as well. According to the NCA, Rahimpur is also wanted by Belgian law enforcement who have accused him of being a major figure in helping to smuggle migrants across the English channel.
Rahimpur is alleged to have bought small boats from Turkey and shipped them to Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium and is accused of directing other members of a people-smuggling network to transport the boats to the northern French coasts for migrants to use, the NCA stated in a press release.
“Rahimpur stands accused of being a major player in what we would say is one of the most significant criminal networks involved in supplying boats to people smugglers. His arrest today follows close co-operation between the NCA, the Europol Migrant Smuggling Centre and our counterparts in Belgium,” Jacque Beer, the Deputy Director of investigations at the NCA, said.
“For us, this form of smuggling of human beings is the ultimate threat to life, so we do everything possible to intervene as soon as possible. Every crossing that can be avoided is a potentially fatal crossing that has been foiled,” added Frank Demeester of the prosecutors’ office of West Flanders in Belgium.
Several alleged people traffickers connected to the English Channel migrant route have been arrested or convicted in recent weeks and months, including a Sudanese man who was sentenced to five years in prison for providing around 20 boats to illegal immigrants in Northern France.
In March, a trio of Iraqi-Kurdish people-smugglers were also sentenced to prison by a French court for their roles in aiding illegal immigrants trying to cross the channel. The three are believed to have taken part in at least 20 crossings of the channel from May 2021 until January of this year.
French authorities estimated last year that people traffickers were making tens of millions of pounds aiding illegal immigrants trying to reach the UK, with boats earning traffickers as much as 300,000 euros (£324,000/$432,000) each.
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