Gangs recruiting HGV drivers to smuggle people

One lorry was stopped with 44 Bangladeshi and Pakistani nationals in the back at the Port of Dover in August, the NCA said

Gangs are actively recruiting lorry drivers to smuggle migrants both into and out of the UK, organised crime investigators have warned.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) said there had been a "spike in arrests in Kent" of drivers boarding trains or ferries to France whilst carrying people illegally.

Its officers have arrested nine lorry drivers in the county for people smuggling offences between July and October, according to the agency.

NCA deputy director of investigations Craig Turner said there was an "extremely high" chance drivers would be caught.

Investigators said the most significant of their arrests since July was Romanian national Ioan Monescu.

He was stopped with 44 Bangladeshi and Pakistani nationals in the back of his trailer at the Port of Dover in August, according to the NCA.

The NCA said Romanian national Ioan Monescu was stopped with 44 foreign nationals in the back

Monescu, 49, admitted assisting unlawful immigration and a judge at Canterbury Crown Court gave him a three-year prison sentence in September.

Smugglers offer drivers thousands of pounds to transport people in otherwise legitimate loads, according to the NCA.

Drivers have previously assisted gangs with loading people into their trucks or turned a blind eye by leaving their vehicles unlocked in specific locations, it said.

Mr Turner said lorry drivers were recruited for their border access but were putting the people they transported, often "vulnerable individuals" who were taken advantage of, at risk.

A BBC investigation found migrants made several thousand attempts to hide on UK-bound vehicles at the English Channel ports in 2024.

The NCA says it "continues to carry out a number of investigations looking at criminal groups using trucks to smuggle people".

"We've seen individuals coming into the UK legitimately and then being smuggled out to their preferred destination, sometimes in Europe," Mr Turner said.

He asked law-abiding drivers and the public to call 999 or contact the charity Crimestoppers if they saw anything suspicious.