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Europol said the network could have smuggled as many as 10,000
illegal migrants to Britain over the past year and a half and
netted as much as 15 million euros from their criminal activity.
"This is the most significant operation ever mounted against
smuggling operations across the English Channel, especially with
this phenomenon of small boats," Europol deputy executive
director Jean-Philippe Lecouffe told a news conference.
Police officials said the gang was one of the most active
criminal networks smuggling people from France to Britain in
small boats.
Police forces in Britain, France, Belgium, Germany and the
Netherlands were involved in the operation.
One of the key suspects, a 26-year-old Iranian-Kurdish man, was
arrested in Britain along with five others. Germany arrested 18
people, French police nine and Dutch police six suspected gang
members.
Police also seized more than 1,200 life-jackets, some 150 rubber
boats and around 50 engines as well as tens of thousands of
euros in cash, firearms and drugs, Europol said.
Asked about the likely impact of the crackdown, Matt Rivers of
the U.K. National Crime Agency said: "Given the number of boats
we seized yesterday (...) we can expect a fall in the number of
crossings in the immediate future."
Official figures show that more than 28,500 people were detected
arriving in England last year after making the dangerous
cross-Channel journey on small boats and the British government
is under heavy public pressure to halt the flow.
The government hopes to start sending some of the illegal
migrants to Rwanda but that plan - widely criticised in Britain
and internationally - is being held up by legal challenges.
(Reporting by Stephanie van den Berg; Editing by Gareth Jones)
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