A man suspected of masterminding the smuggling of thousands of people across the Mediterranean has been arrested in the UK.
The 40-year-old Egyptian national was arrested in Hounslow, west London, on Wednesday and questioned on suspicion of facilitating illegal immigration by running an operation from the UK, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said.
He is allegedly linked to crossings from north Africa to Italy in the last year involving hundreds of migrants at a time.
We suspect this man has been running his operation from the UK and masterminding the smuggling of thousands of migrants— Darren Barr, NCA
Investigators suspect he was working with people-smuggling networks in north Africa to organise boats bringing migrants over.
Darren Barr, senior investigating officer at the NCA, said: “We suspect this man has been running his operation from the UK and masterminding the smuggling of thousands of migrants.
“The type of boats organised crime groups use for crossings are death traps and sadly many people have died after incidents in the Mediterranean, which demonstrates the level of danger.”
He said the NCA would continue to share intelligence and take action with partnering agencies, including the Italian Guardia di Finanza, to prevent further crossings.
Several incidents involving migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean into Europe have occurred in recent months.
Just yesterday, two people were found dead and a further 24 were rescued when a dinghy carrying migrants sank off the western coast of Morocco.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak earlier this week underlined the importance of discouraging people from “using unsafe and illegal routes”, after a fishing trawler transporting people from Libya to Italy overturned and sank off south-western Greece last week, with more than 500 migrants feared drowned.
