Date: Wed, 12 Aug 2015 16:13:17 +0200
Local mayor says migrant camp in the control of a British gang who smuggle some of their paying clients in suitcases loaded in to Jaguars and BMWs
French police are powerless to arrest a gang of violent British criminals who are smuggling migrants from Dunkirk into England because they do not have enough "proof", a local mayor has claimed.
Franck Dhersin, the mayor of Téteghem, said a migrant camp a few miles away from his town was run by British smugglers who reportedly charge migrants up to £1,500 to take them to the UK.
The UK-based “mafia” cruise around French coastal towns in luxury vehicles – including BMWs and Jaguars – which they use to smuggle migrants across the border, he said.
"They are English mafia in English cars," the mayor said during a visit to the camp on Tuesday, which overlooks Téteghem Lake and holds around 80 migrants from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.
A senior police source told The Telegraph they have launched an investigation into the gang, which they say are a group of UK-based criminals who transport migrants across the border in cars with British number plates.
The source also disclosed that a man who reportedly threatened a Ukip MEP with a gun on Monday was suspected to be the ringleader of the British criminals.
The gang hides the migrants in lorries or vans and in suitcases if they are to be smuggled in cars so that they pass unnoticed through border checks at Calais and Dunkirk, according to the source.
French police have seized just 30 cars with British number plates from the camp in spite of it opening more than seven years ago, and their attempts to bug the criminals have been scuppered because they cannot find a translator, the mayor claimed.
"I don't fight against the migrants, I try to fight against the smugglers, and work with French police to try to take the English cars and put them in a garage, to keep money from the smugglers,” he said.
Police recently seized a “wonderful Jaguar” with British number plates worth 100,000 euros from the camp, he revealed.
Asked why the authorities were allowing the cars to shamelessly sneak migrants across the border, Mr Dhersin said it was too "difficult" to prevent them.
"It's difficult to stop the cars because they know the laws in France, you can't just take a car like that, you can't, you have to respect the law by staying many days in the same place [observing the drivers]."
The mayor called for an Australian-style “blockade" across the Mediterranean sea, armed with gunships, because it was "the only solution" to deter the migrants.
"Stop the boats with a blockade, this is the only solution. When they arrive in Europe it is too late," he said.
It was useless to try to close the camp because another would spring up just days later, he added.
French police had resorted to placing tracking devices inside the cars, he went on to say, but were unable to find a translator who could reveal what the drivers were saying to each other.
"They hide tracking devices under the car... but you know [the drivers] speak a language, such as Farsi, and it is impossible to find a translator.
"Also French law says you can only do this for 48 hours, and they know the law, so they win every time."
In one farcical situation just a month ago, Belgian police chased one of the British cars - a BMW - across the border, only to abandon the pursuit as soon as it sped inside the camp, it was claimed.
"A car from the Belgian Gendarmerie chased an English car from Ostend, chased them, and the car stopped [at the camp], goes inside, and the Belgian car stopped because it cannot go inside,” Mr Dhersin said.
Mr Dhersin also said he was outraged after one suspected smuggler demanded that he show them his ID card during a recent visit to the camp.
"I said, I am the mayor here - you show me your ID card."
He then led a group of reporters on a tour of the camp, as migrants hid their faces and retreated into makeswarns police powerless to stop British gang smuggling hift houses and shelters.
Five cars with British number plates were spotted around the camp - a blue Ford Focus, a green Audi estate, a VW Passat and two vans.