BBC - Violent Channel smuggling gang's French and UK network

FriedGreenTomatoes2

I fail to see how swapping one immigrant for a different immigrant helps. It's still one more immigrant. 🤷‍♀️

Plus France has a veto on who we can send back.

I dunno, perhaps we could as a sovereign nation swap back a bit.

Like I'll trade you an Egyptian born consultant for a fruit picker?

It might work I suppose.

BBC News this evening:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3wnd58zyx8o
A man suspected of being part of an organised crime group that smuggled people to the UK in small boats has been arrested.

Officers from the National Crime Agency (NCA) said they earlier detained the 22-year-old Iranian at an address in Acocks Green in Birmingham on suspicion of conspiring to facilitate illegal immigration.

The arrest followed a BBC investigation into the activities of a people smuggling group operating in northern France and the West Midlands.

At least it was followed up.
I was surprised at his age.

While I'm waiting for the dogs to eat their breakfast, I found the name of the Chinese company manufacturing the small boats.
Weihai Yamar Outdoors Product Co.
So, isn't it simple enough to work back from this outfit and see who is acquiring multiple craft and motors etc and where they are being moved onto?

escaped

While I'm waiting for the dogs to eat their breakfast, I found the name of the Chinese company manufacturing the small boats.
Weihai Yamar Outdoors Product Co.
So, isn't it simple enough to work back from this outfit and see who is acquiring multiple craft and motors etc and where they are being moved onto?

That's exactly how people get caught. One would also need China's co-operation. That's why alerting "agents" by trying to interview them on TV in places like Calais isn't a good idea. The public doesn't know what goes on behind the scenes.

I’ve read that the Chinese are not best pleased that a company of theirs is complicit in this business.
There lies another problem for people to get round.
Buying these inflatables isn’t illegal.
A genuine honest businessman in Calais has had to stop selling them. Honest people do buy them.

petra

I’ve read that the Chinese are not best pleased that a company of theirs is complicit in this business.
There lies another problem for people to get round.
Buying these inflatables isn’t illegal.
A genuine honest businessman in Calais has had to stop selling them. Honest people do buy them.

Exactly! There's absolutely nothing illegal about inflatable boats or selling/buying them. That's why it's important that the end users for illegal purposes are identified and the supply chains chased back, which requires international co-operation and undercover operations.

I'm astonished that it never crossed the mind of that genuine honest businessman in Calais that he was selling an awful lot more inflatable rubber dinghies than he did for the usual leisure trade and that he was making an awful lot more profit as a result! 🤔

Allira

I'm astonished that it never crossed the mind of that genuine honest businessman in Calais that he was selling an awful lot more inflatable rubber dinghies than he did for the usual leisure trade and that he was making an awful lot more profit as a result! 🤔

Yeah right! 😂
The end of a lucrative trade for a few.

Oreo

Allira

I'm astonished that it never crossed the mind of that genuine honest businessman in Calais that he was selling an awful lot more inflatable rubber dinghies than he did for the usual leisure trade and that he was making an awful lot more profit as a result! 🤔

Yeah right! 😂
The end of a lucrative trade for a few.

That’s not what Petra said though, there was not a suggestion that the seller in Calais was selling dinghies to migrants. - pretty unlikely he would be, if you think about it. I’m sure I read that the dinghies are imported in bulk, stored in warehouses all over Europe, and transported by road to the gang organisers as they use them.

Decathlon in Calais took all their boats, kayaks, etc off the shelves though. So there must be opportunists buying them locally.

Yes, I meant that sellers in Calais are not buying them specifically to sell to migrants. They use bigger dinghies normally than the average punter would buy, and overload them. I can’t imagine how perilous it would be for an opportunist to buy a smaller one and set sail for the UK, but I don’t doubt they do.

So why has the honest trader had to stop selling them if they they're not the same as the ones bought by the criminal gangs?

Presumably because opportunists were buying them? The bigger operations are much more sophisticated than that, I’m sure. I’ll see if I can find the article I saw about warehouses being used.

Found it, there are other examples online, but this is the one I was thinking of.
www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/news/nca-and-bpol-target-channel-small-boat-suppliers