The Egyptian national was found to have organised seven crossings of a total of 3,781 migrants<\/a> on fishing boats from Libya to Italy between October 25, 2022, and April 16, 2023, Southwark crown court was told.<\/p>\n The National Crime Agency said that an average of \u00a33,273 charged to each passenger generated an estimated \u00a312,375,213 in revenue in the illicit operation.<\/p>\n The NCA planted listening devices in Ebid\u2019s flat in Isleworth, west London, which he was provided while his asylum claim<\/a> was being processed.<\/p>\n A mobile phone linked to Ebid was used to call a satellite phone that contacted the coastguard for rescue once in Italian waters, the court was told.<\/p>\n In a phone call, Ebid was recorded as saying: \u201cAnyone caught with phones will be killed, thrown in the sea.\u201d<\/p>\n He added: \u201cI am the owner of the work, you do what I tell you to do.\u201d<\/p>\n Frederick Hookway, the prosecuting barrister, said: \u201cThe defendant appears to have authority over others \u2026 [and] control of how the conspiracy is carried out.\u201d<\/p>\n He added that Ebid instructed members of the network to bribe Libyan authorities and quoted him as saying: \u201cPut all the military under your arm. That\u2019s what I used to do.\u201d<\/p>\n A Newton hearing took place within the trial after Ebid pleaded guilty in October 2023 because his claim of being a low-ranking member of the crime network was disputed. The judge at Southwark crown court ruled that he held a \u201csignificant managerial role\u201d.<\/p>\n Hookway added that a conviction in Italy for which Ebid was jailed for more than five years after being caught smuggling cannabis off the coast showed he had a record of using his \u201cmaritime knowledge to circumvent border controls\u201d.<\/p>\n Bartholomew O\u2019Toole said in mitigation that Ebid was a \u201ccommitted family man\u201d who had worked as a fisherman since about the age of 13.<\/p>\n The barrister quoted a prison chaplain as saying Ebid now \u201cworks really hard and regularly attends Friday prayers\u201d and was \u201cdetermined to change himself for the better\u201d since he was arrested in June 2023. The offender had begun \u201cmentoring young Islamic men who fall into depression within the prison system\u201d, he added.<\/p>\n O\u2019Toole said that Ebid \u201cdidn\u2019t himself amass large quantities of money\u201d and lived \u201cin poverty\u201d in his flat.<\/p>\n However, Judge Adam Hiddleston said: \u201cYou must be the beneficiary, even if hidden away in this country or abroad, of a considerable amount of that money.\u201d<\/p>\n The judge said: \u201cThe risk of loss of life on a truly enormous scale was considerable.<\/p>\n \u201cThese were fishing boats, not ferries \u2014 they were not designed to carry many hundreds of people across a large stretch of water. They were not equipped for an emergency.\u201d<\/p>\n He added: \u201cThat money [generated by the operation] came from the hard-earned savings of each of those desperate individuals. These were ordinary human beings \u2014 men, women and also children \u2014 who were ruthlessly and cynically exploited by you and the group that you were such a central and important part of.\u201d<\/p>\n The judge sentenced<\/a> Ebid to 25 years in custody<\/a> and referenced the \u201cneed to impose deterrent sentences for this type of offending\u201d.<\/p>\n He added: \u201cThere has to be a crystal clear message delivered to those engaged in this trade, that the protection of international borders \u2026 is taken very seriously indeed and reflected in a lengthy sentence being passed.\u201d<\/p>\n The Nationality and Borders Act 2022 increased the maximum sentence for assisting unlawful immigration to life imprisonment.<\/p>\n After the sentence was delivered, Ebid said: \u201cThis is unfair.\u201d<\/p>\n Ebid\u2019s wife, who was attending the hearing with their second son, broke down in tears as he was escorted from the courtroom.<\/p>\n The NCA regional head of investigation, Jacque Beer, said: \u201cA proportion of those he moved to Italy would also have ended up in northern Europe, attempting to cross the Channel to the UK.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople smuggling is an international crime and, working with our partners both home and abroad, we are determined to do all we can to target, disrupt and dismantle the criminal networks involved.\u201d<\/p>\n The minister for border security and asylum, Dame Angela Eagle, said the government would introduce counterterror-style powers for border enforcement in the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill.<\/p>\n She said: \u201cFor too long our borders have been undermined by vile people smuggling gangs putting lives at risk for cash. <\/p>\n \u201cEbid and his associates preyed on vulnerable individuals, with hundreds being crammed onto dangerous boats and charged an extortionate fee for their transport.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An asylum seeker who arranged the smuggling of thousands of African migrants into Europe while living in Hounslow…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":122453,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[2414,748,30,188,393,299,4884,28981,2199,7898,257,18681,16,15,22540],"class_list":{"0":"post-122452","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-asylum-seeker","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-courts","11":"tag-crime","12":"tag-england","13":"tag-europe","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-human-trafficking","16":"tag-italy","17":"tag-justice","18":"tag-london","19":"tag-organised-crime","20":"tag-uk","21":"tag-united-kingdom","22":"tag-west-london"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114551371008091345","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/EIBD-custody-photo.jpg\")
Ahmed Ebid was sentenced to 25 years in jail<\/strong> Credit: NCA<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Event-30-November-2022.jpg\")
The journey on November 30, 2022, was the fourth Ebid had been charged with organising. The judge said the volume of passengers was too large to land the boat safely so the traffickers called the coastguard to \u201cget someone else to do it\u201d<\/strong> Credit: NCA<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/ebid-arrest_6918337-1024x576.jpg\")
Ebid was arrested at his home in Iselworth in June 2023<\/strong> Credit: NCA<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Boat-pic-from-Ebid-phone-2.jpg\")
A phone was seized at Ebid\u2019s residence which contained images of boats being considered for purchase and a notebook contained co-ordinates of the voyage from Libya to Italy<\/strong> Credit: NCA<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/20250516_1311180-edited.jpg\")
The sentencing hearing at Southwark crown court began on Monday and the sentence was delivered the next day<\/strong> Credit: Kendall Field-Pellow<\/p>\n