Overview

• Twelve members of the ring, including leader Azize Benaniba, were convicted at Isleworth Crown Court on June 16 after a six-week trial.
• Investigators linked the network to more than 20 smuggling attempts between February and October 2023, often loading migrants into refrigerated or sealed trailers.
• Migrants paid as much as £1,200 each after arriving on UK tourist visas before being driven via Dover to France.
• Footage recovered from organisers' phones showed migrants, some as young as five, trapped and pleading for help inside lorry trailers.
• The NCA launched the probe following the discovery of 58 hidden migrants by French border police in Calais in February 2023; key suspects were arrested in North London raids in March 2024.