Eighteen members of a notorious people-smuggling gang have been sentenced in France for orchestrating thousands of dangerous boat crossings in the English Channel. Dubbed ‘merchants of death’ by prosecutors, the primarily Iraqi Kurdish group was dismantled during a Europe-wide operation in 2022 that involved multiple countries. The ringleader, Mirkhan Rasoul, received the longest sentence in Lille, with evidence linking the gang to around 10,000 crossings. Over 100 boats and significant smuggling equipment were seized, underlining the operation’s scale and impact.