A network of Afghan smugglers who organized crossings between Pas-de-Calais and Great Britain aboard small zodiac-type boats was dismantled this week by the office for the fight against illegal immigration (Ocriest), a its chef Xavier Delrieu announced Friday March 5 to AFP.
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These investigations, opened last November, after information gathered by the brand new Franco-British operational intelligence unit (URO), led to the arrest on Tuesday in Yvelines of 10 people, under the control of the specialized interregional court (Jirs ) from Paris, said Xavier Delrieu.
After four days in police custody, nine suspects were presented to the examining magistrate on Friday, who indicted them for “
helping to stay illegally in an organized gang
” and “
criminal association
”, said a judicial source.
Three were remanded in custody.
Four protagonists are suspected of being organizers, the others are said to be “
little hands
” of the organization.
The investigation required a lot of nighttime and technical surveillance.
The network bought boats, of the zodiac type, and engines via classified ads.
Members of the network then went to bury the boats in the sand on the beaches of Pas-de-Calais, in particular that of Wimereux, just before the organization of a passage of migrants.
Each boat could carry 10 to 15 people and the trip cost the candidates “
2,500 to 3,000 euros per person
”, explained Commissioner Delrieu, adding that this
very lucrative
“
small-boat
”
phenomenon
had developed a lot in these times. last months.
The network dismantled Tuesday recruited its victims in the Paris region and Calais.
They were Afghans, Iranians, Iraqis and Vietnamese, added the boss of Ocriest.
The survey established at this stage six boat departures for 70 migrants.
Half of these boats were intercepted at sea, according to the commissioner.
The smugglers were arrested Tuesday morning, on their return from Pas-de-Calais, in an apartment in Yvelines which served as their base.
In 2020, more than 9,500 crossings or attempts to cross the Channel on makeshift boats were recorded, four times more than in 2019, despite heavy traffic and violent currents in the Strait of Pas-de-Calais.
