Undercover tactics to smash people-smuggling gangs

Scotland Yard expert on organised crime appointed to tackle small boat crossings as eight migrants die in the Channel

Sir Keir Starmer’s new border security commander will accelerate the use of undercover tactics and covert surveillance in an attempt to smash Channel migrant gangs.
Martin Hewitt, the former Scotland Yard chief who led the police response to the Covid pandemic, has been appointed by the Prime Minister to take charge of hundreds of investigators taking on the gangs behind the Channel crossings.
It is understood the former head of the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) clinched the job after presenting a detailed plan to boost the use of undercover tactics and covert surveillance to track down and stop the people-smugglers.
It is the first sign of how the Government plans to tackle the migrant crisis after being criticised for scrapping the Rwanda scheme without an alternative deterrent.
The appointment came as eight migrants died trying to cross the Channel when their dinghy ran aground and sank off the coast of northern France. It brings the total number of deaths this year to 45, compared with just 12 last year. A 10-month-old baby with hypothermia was among six others taken to hospital for treatment.
Sir Keir will meet Giorgia Meloni, the Italian prime minister, in Rome on Monday to see how the UK could emulate her success in more than halving migrant crossings of the Mediterranean. Her tactics have included crackdowns on the gangs, striking new returns agreements with source countries and fast-tracking deportations of failed asylum seekers.
The Prime Minister pledged Mr Hewitt would “lead a new era of international enforcement to dismantle these networks, protect our shores and bring order to the asylum system”.
Mr Hewitt, 58, who is accompanying Sir Keir to Italy, said: “I am honoured and excited to lead this new and groundbreaking command. I am under no illusions of the challenges that lie ahead, but I am determined to face them head-on.
“For too long, the criminal gangs who smuggle people through Europe have abused our borders in the name of profit, and they are responsible for the deaths of scores of vulnerable, innocent people. We will dismantle them, bring them to justice and prevent them from using exploitation and deceit to fill their pockets.
“It is great to see that progress has been made in recent weeks, and we will build on this to forge deeper relationships with all of the organisations within Border Security Command, as well as our friends and partners across the world.”
During his time in the Metropolitan Police, Mr Hewitt was seen as a “troubleshooter”. As well as being responsible for gangs, organised crime and frontline policing, he was tasked to devise a strategy to reverse low rape conviction rates. After seeing the carnage caused by zombie knives, he was one of the first police officers to call for new laws on them in 2018.
At the NPCC, he led the national policing response after the murder of Sarah Everard. During the pandemic, he was not afraid to be critical of badly drafted guidance and laws around lockdown.
Mr Hewitt is understood to have been one of 11 candidates long-listed by officials for the job. The final four had “fireside chats” with Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, before the final decision was taken.
Sources said he was chosen for three key attributes: a track record of overseeing complex operations involving multiple agencies; his understanding of the machinery of Government and its interaction with agencies; and expertise on organised crime networks and how to target the kingpins.
As head of the Border Security Command, Mr Hewitt will lead hundreds of investigators, police officers and prosecutors from the National Crime Agency (NCA), MI5, Border Force and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), who will get new powers to treat people-smugglers like terrorists.
“He has an understanding of how organised crime works and has plans to enhance covert capabilities with practical steps we can take to increase the capacity of the NCA to disrupt illicit finance routes or intercept communications through social media,” said a source.
In Italy, Sir Keir and Mr Hewitt will visit the national co-ordination centre for migration, from which it runs its operations against trafficking rings and illicit finance.
Ms Meloni has extended organised crime penalties to those who finance people-smuggling after courts used them to seize assets worth €1.9 billion from Mafia and gang bosses in 2021.
Sir Keir has said he is “interested” in Ms Meloni’s plans to send migrants to Albania to process their asylum claims, although government sources played down the prospect of Labour adopting a similar scheme.
Instead, they said it was an example of the fast-track processing of asylum claims to allow the rapid deportation of illegal migrants back to “safe” countries that Britain aimed to emulate.
Italy has negotiated a bespoke returns agreement with Tunisia to transfer thousands of migrants back to the north African state and the UK Government is seeking to increase the number of similar returns deals.
Unlike the UK’s agreement with France, the deals Italy has made with Libya and Tunisia allow for their border force vessels to intercept migrants at sea and return them from whence they came.
In an article for The Telegraph, Tony Smith, the former Border Force director general, said the EU’s backing for such “turn backs” at sea was “inconsistent and at worst disingenuous” when it refused to allow British vessels to take the same approach with dinghies in the Channel.
“The EU should stop pretending returns of UK-bound migrant boats to France is not an option. Rather, they should enter into immediate negotiations with us on joint patrols in the Channel – and the immediate safe return of all the migrants to France, regardless of who rescues them and where,” he said.