London court sentences Egyptian man for smuggling people to Italy A London court on Tuesday sentenced an Egyptian man to 25 years in prison for smuggling people from North Africa to Italy. Ahmed Ebid, who arrived in the U.K in October 2022 after crossing the English Channel in a small boat, pleaded guilty at Southwark Crown Court to conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration.
Judge Adam Hiddleston said Ebid played a key role in an organized crime group and that his “primary motivation was to make money” from human trafficking. Since his arrival in Britain and until June 2023, Ebid, 42, was implicated in at least seven separate boat crossings as part of a 12 million-pound ($16 million) operation that carried 3,781 people, including children, into Italian waters from North Africa.
Britain’s National Crime Agency cited some of those who had entered the U.K. illegally as saying that Ebid even told an associate to kill and throw into the sea anyone onboard caught with a mobile phone. Source: africanews
