An asylum seeker fisherman who helped ‘cynically’ smuggle migrants from his taxpayer funded flat has been jailed for 25 years.
Egyptian-born Ahmed Ebid, 42, orchestrated the transportation of almost 3,800 individuals, which comprised women and children, in a £12 million unlawful boat scheme.
The trafficker coordinated seven voyages from North Africa to Italy spanning from October 2022 to June 2023. Some of the numerous migrants aboard these vessels eventually headed towards the United Kingdom, informed the National Crime Agency (NCA).
Operating from his residence in Isleworth, located in south west London, Ebid instructed his cohorts that migrants discovered with phones should face lethal consequences and be disposed of in the sea to evade detection by law enforcement, as stated by the agency.
Known as “Captain Ahmed” on Facebook, Ebid was eventually caught after investigators linked his London-based mobile number to satellite phones that were used to make distress calls from the boats to the Italian coastguard.
His home was raided in June 2023 by Britain’s FBI, the National Crime Agency (NCA) which uncovered evidence that would unmask Ebid as one of Britain’s most prolific and ruthless people smugglers.
Egyptian-born Ahmed Ebid (pictured), 42, helped organise the movement of nearly 3,800 migrants – including women and children
Ebid, 40, organised death trap boat crossings with people smuggling networks in North Africa, transferring hundreds of people at a time across the Mediterranean from Libya to Italy
A picture of a boat found on the phone used by Egyptian national Ahmed Ramadan Mohamad Ebid
Ebid arrived in the UK in October 2022 after crossing the Channel in a small boat and having been sentenced in Italy in 2017 to a total of six years and two months in prison for drug smuggling.
Soon after he began arranging the operations in the Mediterranean.
He was working with people smuggling networks to organise boats, bringing over hundreds of migrants at a time on extremely dangerous vessels from Libya and advertising the crossings on Facebook.
Ebid sourced and provided boats and crews, provided technical advice during the crossings, helped house migrants, and dealt with any required paperwork, prosecutors said.
In one conversation with an associate, recorded via a listening device planted by NCA officers, he ordered migrants were not to carry phones with them on his boats.
He said: ‘Tell them guys anyone caught with a phone will be killed, threw in the sea.’
One crossing on October 25 2022 saw more than 640 migrants rescued by the Italian authorities after they attempted to cross in a wooden boat, the NCA said.
It was taken into port in Sicily and two bodies were recovered.
Ebid had been using his taxpayer-funded deco-style block of flats in the desirable Isleworth area in southwest London as a base to mastermind a ruthless people smuggling gang
In another, 265 migrants were rescued by the Italian coastguard from a 20-metre fishing boat found adrift in the Mediterranean in early December 2022 after it left Benghazi.
Two search and rescue operations occurred in April 2023 after distress calls to the coastguard and in each case more than 600 migrants were on board the boats, the NCA said.
Overall, Ebid helped with at least seven separate crossings which carried 3,781 people into Italian waters.
Each migrant had been charged an average of around £3,200, netting those involved £12.3 million, the NCA said.
Ebid was detained in Isleworth in June 2023 after the NCA, along with the Italian Guardia di Finanza and the Italian coastguard, linked him to the crossings.
On a phone seized from him, investigators found pictures of boats, conversations about the possible purchase of vessels, videos of migrants making the journey, and screenshots of money transfers.
Tim Burton, specialist prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, said: ‘Ahmed Ebid played a leading role in a sophisticated operation, which breached immigration laws and endangered lives, for his own and others’ financial gain.
‘Vulnerable people were transported on long sea journeys in ill-equipped fishing vessels completely unsuitable for carrying the large number of passengers who were on board.
Migrants being brought to shore on the Italian island of Lampedusa on September 15, 2023
A boat with migrants seen under the lighthouse in Lampedusa, Italy on August 4, 2022
‘His 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 serious risk.’
Jacque Beer, of the NCA, said: ‘Ebid was part of a crime network who preyed upon the desperation of migrants to ship them across the Mediterranean in death trap boats.
‘The cruel nature of his business was demonstrated by the callous way he spoke of throwing migrants into the sea if they didn’t follow his rules.
‘To him they were just a source of profit.
‘He was based in the UK but organising crossings from North Africa.
‘A proportion of those he moved to Italy would also have ended up in northern Europe, attempting to cross the Channel to the UK.’
Ebid is the first person in Britain to be convicted of smuggling migrants across the Mediterranean, amid a new crackdown on the international smuggling gangs organised from Britain.
The NCA believes that although his clients landed on Italian shores, some of them ended up making their way to Britain.
The 42-year-old who was jailed for 25 years at London’s to Southwark Crown Court for conspiring to assist illegal immigration
Almost 25,000 people have lost their lives attempting the arduous journey since 2014, with 382 dead from this year already
They were charged an average of £3,300 for the dangerous crossing.
Almost 25,000 people have lost their lives attempting the arduous journey since 2014, with 382 dead from this year already, according to the UN’s International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
Nearly 19,000 migrants successfully crossed the Mediterranean over the crossing this year.
In comparison, a record 12,000 have arrived in Britain on small boats from France.
But at the height of demand in 2023, almost 158,000 migrants travelled from northern Africa to Italy, according to the IOM.
Crossing the sea took careful planning, and Ebid was required to be on hand to discuss tactics with gang members in north Africa.
In an attempt to confuse authorities, Ebid used code words, such as referring to boats as ‘cars’.
He was caught telling an accomplice ‘the most dangerous trip to Europe is this trip’.
In another recorded conversation, which were revealed in court, Ebid banned migrants from taking mobiles onto the vessels, saying: ‘Phones are not allowed … [dissenters] will be killed, thrown into the sea.’
The NCA and its Italian counterparts linked Ebid to seven crossings in total, which began just days after he had arrived as an asylum seeker in Britain in October 2022.
In one of the boats that was rescued at sea by the Italian authorities, at least two bodies were discovered.
And a four-year-old girl had to be airlifted to hospital from another ‘death trap’ vessel.
But investigators believe Ebid was involved in many other smuggling trips, involving thousands of migrants.
