Man who helped smuggle thousands of migrants into Europe jailed for 25 years

A UK-based people smuggler who helped exploit migrants as part of a £12 million illegal boat crossing operation has been jailed for 25 years.

Egyptian-born Ahmed 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. Some of them made their way to Britain, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said.

Ebid told an associate to kill and throw into the sea any migrants caught with phones, in a bid to avoid law enforcement, the NCA said.

He ran this operation from his home in Isleworth, south-west London.

The defendant, who is believed to be the first person convicted of organising boat crossings across the Mediterranean from the UK, was sentenced at Southwark Crown Court on Tuesday to 25 years, having pleaded guilty to conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration.

Judge Adam Hiddleston said that Ebid had a “significant managerial role within an organised crime group” and that his “primary motivation was to make money out of human trafficking”.

The judge told Ebid the “conspiracy that you were a part of generated millions of pounds” and that he must have been a “beneficiary” of “a significant amount”.

He added that the “truly staggering” amount of money came from the “hard-earned savings of desperate individuals”, who were “ruthlessly and cynically exploited” by Ebid and the crime group.

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