Four taxi drivers who were part of a conspiracy to smuggle illegal migrants to France in the back of lorries have been sentenced following a National Crime Agency investigation. The gang’s Algerian-born kingpin, Madjid Belabes, 54, was estimated to have made nearly £290,000 by orchestrating the plot.
Belabes, of Camberwell Grove, Camberwell, London, charged migrants £1,200 a time and arranged the movement of migrants to mainland Europe 26 times between December 2022 and September 2023. He was also seen transporting migrants along with those he recruited to help.
In one attempt, 58 migrants who were Algerian, Tunisian and Moroccan were discovered by officials in France. All the people transported by Belabes and his gang had been in the UK on tourist visas before the migrants tried to enter France illegally. The migrants entered the UK specifically to reach mainland Europe.
Belabes was jailed for 10 years and nine months in November for people smuggling and possessing criminal property (£11,000 in cash).
Four taxi drivers who are also Algerian nationals were on Friday sentenced for their roles in collecting migrants in London and delivering them to waiting lorries in lay-bys and service stations in Kent for the onward leg.
Taxi drivers Samir Zerguine, 52, Mourad Bouchlaghem, 44, Mohamed Mabrouk, 44, and Mohamed Issaoun, 50, admitted participating in the activities of an organised crime group when they appeared at Kingston Crown Court. The drivers made multiple trips.
A fifth man, unemployed Said Bouazza, 56, also Algerian, made one trip and was convicted of the same charge by a jury. Belabes used taxi drivers because if stopped by police, they would have a credible reason for having multiple people inside.
NCA investigators proved four of the drivers were linked to Belabes from call and text records found on their mobile phones. Mourad Bouchlaghem was captured on CCTV meeting Belabes in London and placing people in his car. Some of the other drivers were also present.
The operation turned the UK into a staging post for migrants desperate to reach France, with the taxi gang ferrying them across south-east England before they were crammed, often dozens at a time, into the backs of lorries for the final, life-threatening leg across the Channel. The risks were stark: hidden in sealed trailers with no ventilation or escape, migrants faced suffocation, dehydration or road accidents. Yet profit trumped safety.
John Turner, NCA senior investigating officer, said: “We know that some gangs and drivers involved in smuggling migrants out of the UK are involved in smuggling into the UK too. Like Madjid Belabes, their only concern is making money. Belabes and these taxi drivers didn’t care about the potentially fatal dangers facing migrants hidden in lorry trailers.
“These criminal networks treat human beings like commodities. Tackling organised immigration crime is a key priority for the NCA, and alongside our international law enforcement partners, we are relentless in our efforts to dismantle these networks wherever they operate.”
Andrew Hudson, a specialist prosecutor from the Crown Prosecution Service said: “Smuggling people across borders in lorries is highly dangerous but thankfully in this case it was not fatal.
“These five men played their part in an organised crime ring out of pure greed and selfishness. Not only does people smuggling put lives at risk but it’s also an attack on UK border security. The CPS and our law enforcement partners will continue to build the strongest cases against suspects, whatever role they play.”
The sentences mark the latest blow against cross-Channel smuggling networks that exploit both directions of travel. Belabes and his taxi accomplices turned tourist visas into a back-door route to Europe, preying on migrants who had already reached Britain only to be repackaged for another illegal journey. With phones pinging and CCTV capturing the handovers, the evidence was damning. The court heard how the drivers’ seemingly legitimate fares masked a ruthless trade in human cargo.
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