National Crime Agency reports a 55% rise in people smuggling arrests

The National Crime Agency (NCA) has reported a significant increase in arrests related to human trafficking, with figures rising by over 55 per cent last year.

The force was involved in 300 arrests both within the UK and abroad in the year to April 2026. This marks a significant increase from the 190 arrests recorded in the previous year.

The NCA added that this increase was attributed to the expansion of resources, which now includes a greater number of officers dedicated solely to tackling organized immigration crime.

The NCA’s chief operating officer, Rob Jones, stressed the agency’s commitment: “The NCA’s role is to target the organized gangs behind people smuggling and we use the full range of law enforcement tactics to disrupt and dismantle networks wherever they operate, preventing harm to those they exploit for profit, protecting lives and the UK’s border security.”

“Tackling organized migration crime remains a top priority for the NCA and we are dedicating more resources than ever to targeting the criminal networks behind it.

“We are taking the fight against gangs outside Europe to regions such as Iraq and Libya, and targeting criminal networks operating in places where they think they are untouchable.”

During 2025-2026, approximately 59 people were convicted of organized immigration crime (OIC) offenses in UK courts following NCA investigations.

This includes UK-based people smuggler Ahmed Ebid, who was jailed for 25 years in May last year for exploiting migrants as part of a £12 million illegal boat crossing operation.

Egyptian-born Ebid helped organize the movement of thousands of migrants from North Africa to Europe by boat.

Turkish national Adem Savaş was sentenced to 11 years in prison in January 2026, following an investigation involving the NCA and Belgian authorities.

Following his sentencing earlier this year, Mr Jones said Savas was “a key supplier of boats and engines to people smuggling gangs organizing deadly crossings across the Channel”.

The NCA reportedly believed Savas supplied equipment used in around half of all Channel crossings in 2023, making him the agency’s most wanted man as a key player in European people-smuggling circles.

In January and February this year, the NCA arrested six people for human trafficking after a lorry with 23 people was stopped at the port of Dover in Kent.

In March NCA officers were involved in an operation in Germany where four men were arrested as part of an operation targeting another network supplying equipment to small boat gangs.

Mr Jones added: “As these cases show, we aim to target smugglers at every step of the route, in source countries, transit countries, in France and Belgium close to the UK border, and organized crime groups operating within the UK.

“We know our activity is making an impact, we are having a devastating impact on OCGs and making the UK a harder place for them to target.”

During the 2025-2026 fiscal year, the NCA caused 400 outages in the Organization of Islamic Cooperation networks; This figure was 350 in the previous year.

Border Security and Asylum Minister Alex Norris said: “This Government is implementing the biggest crackdown on people smuggling ever seen.

“The dedicated efforts of our National Crime Agency officers have led to a 55% increase in organized immigration crime arrests, accelerating action to tackle the gangs behind this trade.

“This comes as we have launched a record number of enforcement actions, including arrests and sanctions, against migrant smuggling networks since taking office.

“Make no mistake, we will track down, detain and arrest the vile criminals who bring illegal immigrants to our shores.”

In 2025, NCA’s work with international authorities revealed that more than 500 boats and motors were seized.

That same year, it worked with social media networks to remove more than 10,000 accounts, posts or pages linked to organized immigration crime from their platforms.