Ahmed Ebid, 42, has been jailed at Southwark Crown Court for 25 years for conspiring to assist unlawful immigration, in what is believed to be the first conviction for organising crossings of the Mediterranean Sea from the UK. The Egyptian national coordinated with people smuggling networks in north Africa to transport hundreds of migrants from Libya to Italy, a court heard. Ebid was arrested at an address in Isleworth, west London, in June 2023 and later admitted to helping seven fishing boats cross into Europe, with 3,781 migrants on board.

The former fisherman helped boats carrying hundreds of asylum seekers to dock in Europe weeks before he arrived in the UK, it emerged during a Newton hearing - a trial within a trial that takes place when the prosecution and defence disagree about the facts in a case. The National Crime Agency (NCA) said the 42-year-old's jail sentence is the first time someone has been convicted for enabling migrant crossings of the Mediterranean from the UK.

Some of the migrants, including women and children, who successfully crossed into Italy, found their way to Britain, the NCA added.

From his base in Isleworth, Ebid is thought to have told an associate to kill and throw into the sea any migrants caught with phones in a ploy to dodge law enforcement.

Sentencing the 42-year-old to 25 years behind bars, Judge Adam Hiddleston said he had a "significant managerial role within an organised crime group", with a primary motivation to "make money out of human trafficking".

The judge also told Ebid that he must have significantly financially benefitted from the scheme, which "generated millions of pounds".

He said the "hugely staggering" amount money created by the conspiracy came from the "hard-earned savings of desperate individuals" who were "ruthlessly and cynically exploited" at the hands of Ebid and his associates.

Once the fishing boats he helped to organise were in Italian waters, a satellite phone was used onboard to call the local coastguard who brought everyone ashore, the court heard.

Ebid's mobile phone records showed he had been in touch with the satellite phone 34 times over a two-day period, the prosecution said.