A 42-year-old Egyptian national, named as Ahmed E. has been jailed for 25 years after being convicted of smuggling nearly 3,800 migrants from North Africa to Italy between October 2022 and June 2023.

This is the first time that a person in the UK has been convicted for involvement in people smuggling in the Mediterranean, confirmed Britain’s National Crime Agency NCA.

According to an NCA press release, published on May 20, Ahmed E. was the mastermind behind a "number of illegal crossings from Libya." He was arrested in the London borough of Hownslow in June 2023.

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Previously convicted of drug smuggling in Italy

The arrest followed a tip-off from Italian investigators, reported the BBC, who had been looking at satellite phones being used by migrants on Mediterranean crossings from Libya to Europe. On some of the handsets that were used to call Italy’s coast guard, there were calls made to a British mobile number.

Film of the arrest, released by the NCA and posted on their X page, shows Ahmed E. speaking what appears to be fluent Italian to one of the arrest team.

The NCA then linked that phone to Ahmed E. reported the BBC and proceeded to bug his home to record evidence. On his Facebook page, reports suggest that Ahmed E. referred to himself as "Captain Ahmed." Investigating officers are also understood to have found navigational details for the Mediterranean contained in notebooks found at his home.

The NCA said that Ahmed E. had been working with people smuggling networks in north Africa "to organize boats bringing over hundreds of migrants at a time on extremely dangerous vessels." Men, women and children were all packed on to his boats, say prosecutors.

The BBC reported that Ahmed E. himself arrived in the UK on a small boat in 2022, after spending five years in jail in Italy for attempted drug smuggling. He then applied for asylum in the UK but reportedly never received a decision on his case. Channel Four news added that the drug smuggling conviction was because he used his knowledge of the routes to bring large amounts of cannabis into Italy. Britain’s right-wing tabloid newspaper, The Daily Mail, reported that he had attempted to smuggle "a ton of cannabis into Italy." The Daily Mail also described Ahmed E. as a "former fisherman."

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Threats of violence in surveillance recordings

Because of the lack of a decision, reported the BBC, Ahmed E. was essentially in "legal limbo" not granted permission to stay, but also not able to be deported. Once his sentence has been served, he will almost certainly be deported, stated the BBC.

Ahmed E also has a wife and sons living in the UK. All of them were living in Home Office-funded accommodation in south-west London at the time of his arrest.

According to the NCA, Ahmed E. maintained communication with "criminal associates during the crossings." In one conversation that was recorded by NCA surveillance officers, Ahmed E. is alleged to have told an associate, "that migrants were not allowed to carry phones with them on his boats as he sought to avoid law enforcement."

In another conversation, reported by Channel Four news, Ahmed E. is alleged to have said that "small children" were being held in a warehouse prior to the crossing and were "being beaten with sticks."

"Tell them guys anyone caught with a phone will be killed, threw (SIC) in the sea," he said, according to the NCA.

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Two bodies found

On one particular crossing that formed part of the case against Ahmed E. in October 2022, more than 640 migrants were rescued by the Italian authorities after they had attempted to cross on a wooden boat from Libya. The boat was taken into port in Sicily, where two bodies were recovered from the boat.

On another crossing, organized by Ahmed E., according to prosecutors, 265 migrants were rescued by the Italian coast guard from a 20-meter fishing boat found adrift in the Mediterranean in early December 2022. The boat is reported to have set off from Benghazi in Libya.

The following year, in April 2023, two more search and rescue operations were mounted by the Italian coast guard, states the NCA press release, after people on board made calls to the coast guard. In each case, notes the NCA, "more than 600 migrants were on board each boat."

In order to carry out the investigation, the NCA worked closely with the Italian tax, finance and border police (Guardia di Finanza) as well as the Italian coast guard. From evidence collected, they were able to link Ahmed E. to at least seven separate crossings between 2022 and 2023, bringing almost 3,800 people to Italy.

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Prosecutors believe gang made more than 12 million pounds

According to the NCA, each migrant was charged for the crossing an average of about 3,200 pounds (around 3,780 euros) which would have brought a revenue of around 12 million pounds in total (around 14.2 million euros) for the criminal organization.

When Ahmed E. was arrested, the police officers seized a phone from him on which they found images of boats, conversations about the possible purchase of vessels, as well as videos of migrants making the journey, and screenshots detailing money transfers.

In October 2023, Ahmed E. pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiring to assist illegal immigration but told prosecutors he was "only a low-ranking member of the network."

The prosecution, however, disputed his plea, bringing evidence to support their supposition that he was in fact a key figure in the network. The judge supported the prosecutors in their case and on May 20, sentenced Ahmed E. to 25 years in prison. In the judge’s summing up sentencing, Ahmed E. was described as having a "significant managerial role within an organized crime group."

According to the NCA Regional Head of Investigation, Jacque Beer, "Ahmed E. was part of a crime network who preyed upon the desperation of migrants to ship them across the Mediterranean in death trap boats."

According to a report on Britain’s Channel Four news on May 20, Ahmed E. is also believed to have had links to the gang behind the fishing boat that sank off Pylos in Greece in June 2023, leaving hundreds dead. However, as the news channel emphasized, his conviction was for a series of his own operations. The Daily Mail also mentioned the Pylos shipwreck in their coverage of Ahmed E.'s trial, noting that prosecutors captured him expressing concern that the incident might harm smuggling operations -- not out of sorrow for the loss of life, but because of its potential impact on business.

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Migrants 'a source of profit' say prosecutors

Beer went on to say that the "cruel nature of his business was demonstrated by the callous way she spoke of throwing migrants into the sea if they didn’t follow his rules. To him, they were just a source of profit."

During the trial, reported the BBC, the court was told that Ahmed E. bribed officials in Libya in order to get some of his boats through.

Prosecutors believe that although Ahmed E. organized the crossings from Africa to Italy, a "proportion of those he moved to Italy would have ended up in northern Europe, attempting to cross the Channel to the UK."

Tim Burton, Specialist Prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service in Britain, described Ahmed E. as playing "a leading role in a sophisticated operation, which breached immigration laws and endangered lives, for his own and others' financial gain."

Burton underlined that the fishing vessels on which the migrants were transported were "ill-equipped …and completely unsuitable for carrying the large number of passengers who were on board."

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'Dangerous crossings'

For Burton, Ahmed E.’s "repeated involvement in helping to facilitate these dangerous crossings showed a complete disregard for the safety of thousands of people, whose lives were put at risk."

Finally, Britain’s Minister for Border Security and Asylum, Dame Angela Eagle, commented that "for too long, our borders have been undermined by vile people smuggling gangs putting lives at risk for cash."

Eagle thanked the NCA for their "tireless work and dedication," and added, "this government has introduced the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill to strengthen the UK’s border security, introducing new counter-terror style powers for law enforcement, enabling earlier and faster disruption of organized crime. We are steadfast in our mission to protect lives and ensure criminal gangs face the full force of the law."

When he was sentenced, Ahmed E. reportedly shouted that he found the sentence "unfair" and that he had been "saving money to bring my family over."

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Claims to have been offering 'fishing advice' instead of migrant smuggling

During the trial, reported the Daily Mail, Ahmed E. claimed he had just been giving "fishing advice" to fishermen in the Mediterranean and as far afield as Sierra Leone on the west coast of Africa. This, claimed prosecutors, is where he sourced some of the fishing boats from for transporting the migrants.

However, according to Ahmed E.’s testimony, because he was unable to work in the UK, due to the pending asylum claim, he worked with fishermen in north Africa, claiming a share of their profits if his advice reaped rewards. Ahmed E. claimed to have only made 12,000 pounds (around 14,200 euros) from this advice and not the more than 12 million pounds attributed by prosecutors to be the gang’s earnings from smuggling.

The presiding judge in the case told the court that he didn’t believe Ahmed E.’s claims to be giving fishing advice, saying that for that he would have needed a team "including a captain" and that he didn’t believe they would need someone in London calling them on a mobile phone to navigate the waters of the Mediterranean, reported the Daily Mail.

Since the beginning of this year, more than 21,000 migrants have crossed the Mediterranean to Italy. In the same time period, more than 12,000 migrants have crossed the Channel towards the UK.

Since 2014, almost 25,000 migrants are believed to have died, or recorded missing, on the central Mediterranean route. More than 5,000 migrants were recorded dead or missing by the UN Migration Agency's Missing Migrants project in the years 2022 and 2023, when Ahmed E. is accused of operating boats on that route.