Taxi drivers among five charged in NCA probe into migrant smuggling network
- Perry Richardson
- 14 hours ago
- 2 min read
Five people, including three licensed taxi drivers, have been charged following a National Crime Agency investigation into a suspected organised crime group accused of smuggling migrants out of the UK in lorries.
The operation followed two days of surveillance on Monday 26 and Tuesday 27 January, during which investigators observed a number of taxis travelling from London to a location near Whitstable in Kent. Officers later saw 23 people loaded into a lorry, which was stopped by NCA officers as it approached the ferry port in Dover.
The group, all Bangladeshi nationals, were removed from the vehicle. One individual was arrested by Immigration Enforcement for immigration offences. The remaining 22 were found to be in the UK legally and were released.
Three taxi drivers, aged between 43 and 55, were arrested on suspicion of facilitating illegal immigration. A 32 year old Romanian national, identified as the lorry driver, was also detained. A further arrest was made in New Cross, south east London, where a 43 year old man suspected of leading the network was taken into custody. Around £30,000 in cash was seized from a property during the operation.
Suspected organised crime group allegedly used licensed taxis and an HGV to move migrants from London to Dover in bid to evade border controls
All five have now been charged with conspiracy to facilitate illegal immigration and are due to appear before magistrates’ courts in Kent and south east London on Tuesday 28 January.
The investigation was led by the National Crime Agency, with support from the Metropolitan Police Service, Kent Police and the Port of Dover Police. The NCA said the group is suspected of being involved in multiple attempts to move predominantly Pakistani and Bangladeshi nationals out of the UK using lorries, seeking to bypass UK border checks and French entry restrictions.
The case follows a warning issued by the NCA in November 2025 that organised criminal groups were actively recruiting HGV drivers to smuggle migrants both into and out of the UK. That alert came after a rise in arrests in Kent, where drivers were detained while attempting to board ferries or trains to France with people concealed in their vehicles.
Law enforcement agencies have said people smugglers are increasingly targeting drivers involved in otherwise legitimate transport operations, offering substantial sums of money to move migrants across borders. The involvement of taxi drivers in the latest case is likely to prompt renewed scrutiny of how organised crime networks exploit licensed transport services alongside haulage routes.
NCA Branch Commander Saju Sasikumar said: “This operation has been the culmination of an investigation that has been ongoing for a number of months.
“Organised crime groups involved in people smuggling risk the safety of those they transport, and also threaten the border security of both the UK and France.
“Tackling organised immigration crime remains a top priority for the NCA and this investigation is one of around 100 ongoing investigations into networks or individuals in the top tier of this type of criminality.”
