British authorities have sentenced a UK-based smuggler to 25 years in jail after he orchestrated deadly boat crossings across the Mediterranean. Egyptian national Ahmed Ramadan Mohamed Ebid, 42, helped move nearly 3,800 migrants from Libya to Italy between October 2022 and June 2023.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) said Ebid entered the UK in a small boat and later ran a major trafficking operation from London. He worked with North African smuggling groups to charge each migrant around £3,200, making over £12 million.
He organized the crossings using overcrowded fishing boats, many of which risked capsizing during the treacherous Mediterranean journeys. Just three weeks after arriving in the UK, he coordinated two boat convoys carrying hundreds of migrants.
During the court hearing at Southwark Crown Court, Judge Adam Hiddleston called Ebid´s operation a commercial enterprise that ruthlessly exploited desperate people. The judge said Ebid played a high-level managerial role and profited from the migrants ‘ hard-earned savings.
Authorities arrested Ebid in June 2023 after identifying his UK phone number in satellite calls made from migrant vessels. His phone had contacted a satellite device 34 times over two days. The NCA planted a listening device in Ebid´s home, capturing him threatening migrants who carried mobile phones.
In one recording, he told an associate to throw phones carrying migrants into the sea to avoid detection. Investigators found images of boats, chats about vessel purchases, money transfer screenshots, and videos of migrants on his phone.
Ebid previously served five years in Italy for attempted drug smuggling before illegally entering the UK and applying for asylum. Jacque Beer of the NCA added that the UK-based smuggler preyed on desperation and shipped people in death-trap boats.
