UK hands 25-year jail term to Mediterranean small-boat smuggler

In a legal first, a former Egyptian fisherman, who organized the illegal movement of over 3,000 migrants between Libya and Italy, has been jailed by a UK court. 

Ahmed Ramadan Mohamad Ebid, 42, was accused of acting "ruthlessly and cynically" while enriching himself as part of a wider $16 million criminal business.

'Managerial role'

The court heard that Ebid had arrived in the UK himself on a small boat in 2022, after spending five years in jail in Italy on a drugs charge. He had been living in legal limbo in London, while awaiting a decision on his own asylum application.

However, three weeks after coming to the UK, prosecutors claim he began organizing Mediterranean small boat crossings, taking "a managerial role at a very high level" within a criminal group. 

Southwark Crown Court in London heard that he had advertised his services on social media under the name "Captain Ahmed." Investigators had claimed he was involved in transporting close to 3,800 men, women and children on six separate trips, in dangerously overcrowded vessels. Some, it was claimed, had made it to the UK. 

Satellite phones 

He was arrested in 2023 after the Italian authorities found that satellite phones used by migrants on the journey were connecting to a UK mobile number. The investigators with the UK's National Crime Agency linked that mobile phone to Ebid and then bugged his home in Isleworth, West London.

In intercepted calls, Ebid was heard telling his associates to threaten migrants found using mobile phones that could attract the attention of the authorities, saying "tell them guys anyone caught … will be killed, (and) threw in the sea." 

A subsequent search of the house found notebooks detailing routes the boats had taken and payments received. 

Ebid had admitted a lesser role in facilitating illegal immigration to the EU but disputed the claims over the importance of his position.

'Horrifying'

In sentencing him to 25 years imprisonment, Judge Adam Hiddlestone said Ebid had acted out of a "primary motivation to make money", describing his treatment of migrants on his vessels as "horrifying."

He told Ebid the "conspiracy that you were a part of generated millions of pounds" from the "hard-earned savings of desperate individuals". Each migrant, the court heard, had paid around $4,300 for passage on one of his boats. 

From the dock, Ebid shouted that his treatment was "unfair", adding he was "saving money to bring my family over" (to the UK).

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…. To him they were just a source of profit."

He faces almost certain deportation from the UK after serving his jail term.