A FRENCH court in Lille today found 18 defendants guilty in a migrant smuggling trial linked to the dangerous English Channel crossings.

The group was charged after a 2022 police operation across Europe led to several arrests and the seizure of boats, life jackets and cash.

One of the ringleaders, from Iraq, was sentenced to 15 years in prison and fined €200,000 (£167,000). Most of the defendants were not in court for the sentencing. 

Some attended the trial remotely from various prisons in northern France, while others are not in custody.

The trial in Lille has shed light on the clandestine business in what has been a particularly deadly year for the many thousands of men, women and children who attempt the crossing on small and often dangerously overloaded boats.

The defendants were arrested in a pan-European operation that led to dozens of arrests in Germany, France, Britain and the Netherlands in July 2022.

Those arrested included the suspected ringleader of a network that smuggled as many as 10,000 people across the bustling shipping lanes of the English Channel.

The police raids also led to the seizures of 135 boats in Germany and the Netherlands, more than 1,000 life jackets, outboard engines, packs of paddles and cash.