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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Guardian international staff

Police raid migrant smuggling ring accused over small boat Channel crossings

An inflatable dinghy carrying migrants across the Channel
An inflatable dinghy carrying migrants across the Channel in March. One investigator said some Syrians were paying up to €10,000 to be smuggled across to the UK. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

Police have carried out dawn raids in several cities in Germany and France in an internationally coordinated operation to smash a network accused of smuggling migrants to Britain in small boats.

Coordinated with Europol, the French security service and British police after months of intelligence-gathering, the raids on Wednesday concentrated on western German cities where gangs are believed to have procured small boats and found migrants wanting to be taken to the UK from France across the English Channel.

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