UK convicts network that smuggled migrants to France — The National

In the United Kingdom, 21 members of a network that illegally transported migrants to France in trucks and vans were sentenced to a total of more than 84 years in prison. According to The National, the organizers charged each person $1,800 for transport across the English Channel.

Transportation scheme

Migrants, mainly from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, as well as partly from Nepal, arrived in Britain on legal visas. They then paid the criminal group to be illegally transported to France in order to bypass European Union border checks and work in the EU without proper authorization.

The people were taken from London to Kent in southeastern England. There, they were put into trucks and vans, with drivers recruited and paid by the network. The vehicles were to cross the English Channel by ferry.

The UK National Crime Agency monitored the group and documented 10 attempts to illegally take people out of the country. They were intercepted between July 2025 and January 2026, with a total of 196 migrants detained.

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Sentences for organizers and drivers

The group’s leader, 44-year-old Shukhal Ahmed, was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison after pleading guilty to offences related to the illegal transportation of people. His associate, 26-year-old Suhel Ahmed, who collected payments and hired taxi drivers for trips to Kent, received a seven-year prison sentence.

Fifty-year-old minicab driver Robiul Islam was sentenced to five years: he transported migrants from London to trucks and vans and helped organize other drivers. Romanian national Nicusor Lacatus, who connected the group with truck and van drivers, received six years in prison.

John Turner, a senior investigator at the National Crime Agency, said the investigation had made it possible to dismantle the entire network, from the organizers to the drivers hired to illegally transport migrants.