Suspected people-smuggling gang members arrested

Members of a suspected people-smuggling gang who allegedly made millions of pounds helping hundreds of foreign nationals enter the UK illegally have been arrested.

The Home Office said the group was thought to have helped more than 500 people from 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.

Dame Angela Eagle, Minister for Border Security and Asylum, said the government would not "stand by and let evil criminal gangs abuse our immigration system".

The Home Office said the main suspect 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 Gambian nationals 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.

Dame Angela said: "This suspected gang promised their beneficiaries a better life here in the UK.

"Instead, they face heinous levels of exploitation, which is exactly why we are working with law enforcement to ensure survivors of modern slavery are supported and the criminal gangs face justice."

Those arrested were from various parts of Leeds, Batley and Heckmondwike, in West Yorkshire, as well as the Barking and Stratford areas of London.

The Home Office said six of the suspects - four men and two women - had subsequently been charged and remanded into custody.

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