{"id":28434,"date":"2024-10-19T05:51:59","date_gmt":"2024-10-19T09:51:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=28434"},"modified":"2024-10-19T06:59:45","modified_gmt":"2024-10-19T10:59:45","slug":"merchants-of-death-trial-steps-up-fight-against-channel-smugglers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2024\/10\/19\/merchants-of-death-trial-steps-up-fight-against-channel-smugglers\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Merchants of death’ trial steps up fight against Channel smugglers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Peering over her glasses, the French judge glanced sternly across the cavernous underground courtroom towards a notorious figure seated in a glass cage.<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cThere will be no more misbehaviour. No more threats. Is that understood?” asked Arabelle Bouts, the lead judge of a Europe-wide people smuggling trial so vast that it has generated 67 tonnes of paperwork.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes,\u201d replied Mirkhan Rasoul, 26, calmly.<\/p>\n

Mr Rasoul, already convicted on prior smuggling charges and serving a separate eight-year sentence for attempted murder, had interrupted proceedings a few days earlier by threatening two of the translators working in the courtroom. Now he was flanked by two armed policemen.<\/p>\n

Standing near the judge, the lead prosecutor, Julie Carros, leant in towards her microphone, glanced down at her notes, and began to set out her final arguments in a sprawling case that involves a total of 33 alleged members of a Kurdish smuggling gang, accused of responsibility for the bulk of migrants crossing the Channel in small boats between 2020 and 2022.<\/p>\n

While Mr Rasoul remained behind a glass screen, approximately 10 other accused sat in the open courtroom surrounded by another 15 armed policemen, who only removed the men\u2019s handcuffs when the court was in session.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a tentacle-like case… involving merchants of death,\u201d said Ms Carros, describing how the gang had overloaded the small boats, sometimes cramming up to 15 times more people on board than the boats are designed to carry.<\/p>\n

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The result, she said, was a \u201cphenomenal\u201d profit margin for the gangs, who could make up to \u20ac60,000 ($65,000; \u00a350,000) for each boat launched, with roughly half of those boats reaching UK waters, leading to an income for the gang of \u20ac3.5m ($3.8m; \u00a32.9m) a year.<\/p>\n

The gang itself was accused of controlling the lion\u2019s share of all Channel crossings from the French coast \u2013 with its network delivering equipment from across Europe \u2013 until, in late 2021 and 2022,\u00a0its members were arrested<\/a>\u00a0in France, the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany, as part of the largest international operation of its kind at the time against small-boat smugglers.<\/p>\n

In all, 17 men and one woman are now on trial, 12 were found guilty earlier, and three more will be tried next year.<\/p>\n

As Ms Carros set out the prosecution\u2019s case against each of the accused, there were gasps of disappointment from at least two relatives seated in the courtroom, at the long sentences being demanded. The trial is expected to end in early November.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe request a sentence of 15 years, a \u20ac200,000 fine and a permanent ban from French territory,\u201d said Ms Carros in reference to Mirkhan Rasoul, who is accused of continuing to control the gang from a prison in central France.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe found three mobile telephones in his cell,\u201d she said, going on to describe an audio recording on which Mr Rasoul had boasted of the prison in Tours being \u201calmost like a hotel\u2026 they searched the cell but never found my phones. The police are very kind\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Pascal<\/picture><\/span><\/div>
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Lead prosecutor Pascal Marconville says longer sentences are designed to raise pressure on smugglers<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

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But will this huge trial, and the prospect of tough sentences, act as a serious deterrent for a smuggling industry that has, in terms of the sheer number of successful small boat crossings, continued to thrive in the years since these arrests?<\/p>\n

The prosecutors directly involved in this trial were not willing to talk to the BBC, but Pascal Marconville, lead prosecutor at the regional Court of Appeal for northern France, suggested that the long sentences were part of a broader strategy to raise the cost of smuggling for the gangs and their customers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe action taken by French police, with the support of investigative judges, is designed not only to thwart their actions, but also to make such operations so expensive that they lose their appeal,\u201d Mr Marconville told us.<\/p>\n

He described how the gangs had evolved in recent years from informal groups supporting their own countrymen to \u201cnetworks organised much like drug gangs\u201d.<\/p>\n

He went on to sketch out a fragmented network with different \u201csectors\u201d focusing on separate parts of the smuggling industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like chess, and they have [the advantage] on the board. So they\u2019re always one step ahead of us. We have to adapt and understand how we can counter these networks. We\u2019ve struggled with the ringleaders because when they\u2019re arrested and imprisoned they still manage to run their networks from inside,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Despite the difficulties for law enforcement officials working across different countries and, for instance, different laws related to bail and standards of evidence, Mr Marconville praised the collaboration between French and British officials, saying the UK was \u201cvery willing to come up with solutions to improve co-operation\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Germans, on the other hand \u201cwho we always think of as very efficient people, don\u2019t make things easier [for us]\u201d, he noted.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Kamal<\/div>\n
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I am pessimistic because I don\u2019t think it will stop… in these [smuggling] circles people think only about money<\/div>\n