Ruthless people smuggling gangs ‘make so much cash they now rival Britain’s drug trade’
At least £4.5 BILLION made by human smuggling gangs in 2015
RUTHLESS people smuggling gangs are making so much cash they now rival the drugs trade, Britain’s ex-borders chief warned last night.
Former UK Border Agency boss Tony Smith told The Sun the country faced an “unprecedented” surge of desperate migrants trying to reach our shores.
He said many refugees who successfully made it to Europe were quickly turning to human trafficking themselves in a bid to make money.
And he admitted: “People smuggling is a growth industry.
“It’s big business and it’s becoming as lucrative as the drugs smuggling trade.
“These gangs are very well organised and very well structured.
“It’s vital our Border Force teams have the resources they need to deal with them.”
Mr Smith, 52, spoke out days after a bombshell National Crime Agency briefing revealed migrants were paying as little as £100 to get into Britain.
The NCA also said smuggling networks were targeting “weak link” ports like Newhaven, in Sussex, and Whitstable, in Kent, instead of Dover.
Europol said in February people smuggling gangs made £4.5 billion in 2015l
Mr Smith said the change in tactics was down to the growing sophistication of the networks milking the refugee crisis for their own evil ends.
He said: “This is the biggest problem our border teams have faced and it’s the largest influx in history.
“We have to accept there are serious problems at the outer ends of the EU, particularly with Greece and the huge increase of numbers coming out of Turkey.”
He said there had been a surge in the number of gangs formed to help smuggle them across Europe, with Britain a favourite destination.
And he predicted the networks would seek out new routes to test our borders for gaps.
Mr Smith, now boss of security firm Fortinus Global, said: “The smugglers are constantly looking at new alternatives.
“When I was in post Calais was our priority and it was where I focused our resources.
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“But now the smugglers are looking at other routes, because it comes down to what checks are being made at both ends.
“We would send officers regularly to Dieppe, where the Newhaven ferry route goes to, regularly because you want to stop people getting on to the lorries in the first place.
“But Dieppe isn’t like Calais and it hasn’t got the investment that Calais has.
“My hunch is that this issue is now going to become a challenge in places where it hasn’t been a challenge before.”
Mr Smith spent 40 years in the Home Office and led UKBA between 2012 and 2013 before retiring.
He was also in charge of the borders operation during the London 2012 Olympics.
But he told The Sun those at the top of the new Border Force team fear their budget is not big enough to cope with the tide of refugees.
He said: “I do speak to people there and you have to remember these are officials who have a huge sense of pride and professionalism in what they do.
“There’s great camaraderie and people who are prepared to go out of their way to help.
“But I think they are worried about being properly prepared and resourced to deal with the changing threat.
“If we’re seeing new challenges and threats to our borders, we can’t carry on with basic resources.
“I simply don’t know if that’s been acknowledged and addressed.
“If I were still in charge today, I’d want to know how much this challenge was going to cost me in terms of money and people, and I’d want to know we had the right resources in place.”
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