POLICE ARREST SUSPECTS FOR ALLEGEDLY SMUGGLING OVER 500 GAMBIANS TO UK AND EARNING D300M

Leading British news outlets including the BBC and Daily Mail reported on Wednesday that members of a suspected people-smuggling gang who allegedly made millions of pounds helping hundreds of Gambians enter the UK illegally have been arrested.
According to the BBC, the British Home Office said the group was thought to have helped more than 500 people from The Gambia enter the country using forged passports and visas of people who had legitimate status in the UK.
Immigration enforcement officers carried out raids in West Yorkshire and Greater London on Tuesday, arresting seven suspects between the ages of 30 and 50.
The Home Office said the main suspect, a Gambian only identified as Alpha, was believed to have a turnover of more than £1.3m in his bank account, despite claiming to only earn £35,000 a year working for a furniture manufacturing company.
Another suspect is thought to have made a turnover of more than £1m across two bank accounts, while also receiving Universal Credit at the same time.
Officers seized several counterfeit identity documents from the properties they visited, while a large number of images of passports were also found on the main suspect’s mobile phone.
The gang is said to have charged Gambians around £5,000 per person for services, including booking their flights, providing housing for the migrants on arrival and setting them up with illegal work.
The members of the gang are also believed to have sent fake documents to beneficiaries to help them evade being detected by police.
The Home Office said six of the suspects – four men and two women – had subsequently been charged and remanded into custody.
UK Minister for Border Security and Asylum, Dame Angela Eagle said: ‘This operation is a clear display that we will not stand by and let evil criminal gangs abuse our immigration system.’

Source: The Standard