People smugglers' adverts removed from social media

"Investigators discovered the gangs were brazenly offering to transport migrants from Calais to Dover in the back of trucks and touting it as a "taxi service". In one promotional video, three migrants are seen reclining on a mound of soft white packages inside a truck. One of the young men gives a thumbs-up to the camera. "By truck, Safe reach London UK in 2 hours," reads the caption."

"Other criminals advertised sham marriages, where migrants pay thousands of pounds to be set up with British nationals and thus given the right to stay in the UK. False identity documents and assistance with fraudulent asylum claims are also promised by the gangs. The services are advertised in a range of languages, including English, French, Turkish, Arabic, Albanian, Vietnamese, Farsi, Dari, Sorani Kurdish and Pashto."

""Targeting the social media offering of these criminal networks is just one way we are looking to disrupt their business models, and we are expanding how we do that all the time. It also provides us with crucial intelligence leads to identify criminals, and a number of our current investigations have started off this way. We continue to work closely with the social media companies to remove this material and we have positiv"

The National Crime Agency removed a record 10,697 social-media accounts, pages and posts used by people-smuggling gangs to market illegal services. Gangs openly offered truck transport from Calais to Dover marketed as taxi services and promoted videos and captions promising fast arrival in London. Criminals also sold sham marriages, false identity documents and assistance with fraudulent asylum claims, charging migrants thousands of pounds. Advertisements appeared in many languages and directed migrants from public platforms to encrypted messaging apps. Most adverts were posted by low and mid-ranking members in origin countries across the Middle East and eastern Europe. The NCA says takedowns provide intelligence leads and is working with social platforms to expand disruption efforts.

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