A multimillion-pound network thought to be behind the smuggling of up to 200,000 people into the UK was smashed today in a series of dawn raids by police.
Several alleged senior members of the people- smuggling gang - thought to be among the biggest in Europe - were arrested in raids at 12 houses in London and one in Boston, Lincolnshire.
An unidentified man is taken away by police officers from an address in Welling in south east London during a series of dawn raids connected with an investigation into people smuggling.
Senior officers consider the network to be one of the largest, if not the largest, people-trafficking gang they have encountered.
It is believed the group, a huge pan-European organisation, could be responsible for smuggling tens of thousands of mainly Turkish Kurds into the UK illegally in the last few years.
One source described its scale as "absolutely massive" and "frightening".
This morning's raids were the culmination of a two-year Scotland Yard investigation, codenamed Bluesky, which involved 200 officers and co-operation from law enforcement agencies in five other European countries.
In total, 19 people, including former asylum seekers, were arrested in the raids. Two of those arrested were women.
Eight suspected members of the smuggling network were among those arrested.
The gang is thought to have lured thousands of economic migrants from eastern Europe to Britain with the promise of a better life.
Each would probably have paid between £3,000 and £5,000 to be smuggled - in groups of up to 20 at a time - from the Balkans. They would be brought across mainland Europe to the continent's northern coastal ports - a tortuous journey possibly lasting several months.
Once there, they waited in safe houses until the time was right for them to be smuggled into Britain in cramped secret compartments hidden in lorries, cars or ferries.
Some were even taken across the Channel in light aircraft and flown into small provincial airfields in Kent and Cambridgeshire.
Once in Britain, most have simply been absorbed into north London's Turkish community, working in low-paid, menial jobs in the capital's black market economy.
Some were given stolen or forged UK papers, and many use the money they earn to sponsor other family members to make the gruelling trip.
The smuggling ring is estimated to have made tens of millions of pounds from the racket, some of which has been invested in businesses such as cafes and snooker halls. Much of the money has flowed out of the country and police are still trying to trace where and to whom it has gone.
Police have intervened 20 times in the gang's smuggling operations in the last three years in attempts to disrupt its activities.
The network's kingpins are thought to have come to Britain from Turkey as asylum seekers and have since been granted indefinite leave to remain.
Law enforcement officials in France, Italy, Holland, Belgium and Denmark, and Europol, have all contributed to the investigation.
More than 200 police officers were involved in this morning's raids at five houses in Enfield, two in Bexleyheath and one each in Barnet, Haringay, Tower Hamlets, Hackney and Hammersmith.
PA