LONDON (Reuters) -An Egyptian national who helped smuggle thousands of migrants into Europe from north Africa was on Tuesday jailed for 25 years in a London court.
Ahmed Ramadan Mohamad Ebid, 42, conspired with others to assist unlawful immigration by supplying vessels for illegally smuggling migrants from Libya to Italy from shortly after his arrival in Britain in October 2022 until June 2023.
The Crown Prosecution Service said that, during that period, authorities intercepted seven crossings involving nearly 3,800 migrants and made the criminal network more than 12 million pounds ($16 million).
Ebid was said to have played a leading role in the gang which advertised crossings on Facebook, charging migrants an average of over 3,200 pounds per person.
Ebid’s home was bugged by Britain’s National Crime Agency, which revealed him on one occasion telling an associate that migrants were not allowed to carry phones on his boats.
“Tell them guys anyone caught with a phone will be killed, threw (sic) in the sea,” Ebid said.
He pleaded guilty to conspiring to assist unlawful immigration last year and was sentenced to 25 years in jail at Southwark Crown Court on Tuesday.
Judge Adam Hiddleston said Ebid and his associates had “ruthlessly and cynically exploited” those who tried to make the journey to Europe.
The judge added: “The treatment of the migrants on your orders and in your name was horrifying. They were, simply a commodity to you.
“You talked of them in terms of units not as people, referring to them as ‘cartons’. The important thing to you was that each paid up the exorbitant fare that was charged for their crossing and that nobody did anything to compromise your operation.”
(Reporting by Sam Tobin; editing by Sarah Young)
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