Man jailed for hiring taxi drivers to help smuggle migrants to France

An unemployed man who hired a team of taxi drivers in a conspiracy to smuggle migrants illegally to France in the back of lorries has been jailed today.

Madjid Belabes, 53, arranged for five taxi drivers to take migrants from London to lay-bys and service stations in Kent, from where they would be put in lorries and smuggled to France. He is estimated to have made £287,000 from the plot with a going rate of £1,200 for each migrant.

In one incident in February 2023, 58 migrants who were Moroccan, Tunisian and Algerian nationals managed to get as far as France before they were discovered. They had all been in the UK legally on visitor visas.

Madjid Belabes, 53	Samir Zerguine, 52	Mourad Bouchlaghem, 44	Mohamed Mabrouk, 44	Mohamed Issaoun, 49	Said Bouazza, 55

 The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) argued that Belabes masterminded the illegal transportation of people 26 times between December 2022 and September 2023. He pleaded guilty on 29 October, on the third day of the group’s three-week trial. Today he was found guilty of possessing more than £11,000 in cash from his crimes and sentenced to a total of 10 years and nine months in prison at Kingston Crown Court. He will be taken back to court by the CPS to recover as much of his criminal gains as possible. 

During the trial, four out of the five drivers pleaded guilty to taking part in the activities of an organised crime group. Samir Zerguine, 52, Mourad Bouchlaghem, 44, Mohamed Mabrouk, 44, Mohamed Issaoun, 49, and Said Bouazza, 55 who was found guilty by the jury, will be sentenced on 23 January 2026. All six men are Algerian nationals.

All five were or had been taxi drivers and the CPS argued that Belabes hired them because they would have a credible excuse for having multiple people in their car if they were stopped.

Four of the drivers were linked to Belabes from call and text records found on their mobile phones which were examined by the National Crime Agency (NCA) as part of their investigation. Mourad Bouhlaghem was captured on CCTV meeting Belabes in London and placing people in his car. Some of the other drivers were also present.

Andrew Hudson, a Specialist Prosecutor in the Crown Prosecution Service, said:

“Fighting migration crime is not only about prosecuting illegal entry to the UK but also going after those who make money from smuggling people to neighbouring countries and, in doing so, put desperate men, women and children in dangerous situations.

“Madjid Belabes and his five drivers helped migrants cross the Channel 26 times over 10 months and would have carried on doing so if they had not been caught.

“The sentence given today shows how seriously our justice system takes this offending and stands as a warning to other gangs.

“The Crown Prosecution Service will continue to work with our partners at home and overseas and play a vital role in bringing those involved in any aspect of organised immigration crime to justice.”

John Turner, NCA senior investigting officer, said:

“We know the gangs and drivers involved in smuggling migrants out of the UK are often involved in smuggling into the UK too. Like Madjid Belabes, their only concern is making money. Belabes didn’t care about the potentially fatal dangers facing migrants hidden in lorry trailers.

“He was in charge of this cell and he was a senior member of the wider crime group. He recruited the drivers to move the migrants. But he also liked to get his hands dirty by gathering the migrants together and driving them himself. These criminal networks treat human beings like commodities.

“Tackling organised immigration crime is a key priority for the NCA, and alongside our international law enforcement partners, we are relentless in our efforts to dismantle these networks wherever they operate.”

Two of the lorry drivers involved in the onward crossings were arrested by French authorities in February 2023.

Belabes said he was paid £150-£180 per trip, while Bouazza, who was used once, said he was paid £70 - the same amount as Mabrouk, who made eight trips. Zerguine said he was paid £25-£40 per person for his 14 trips. It is not clear how many migrants they transported to Kent in total.