A people smuggler arranging small boat crossings from France to the UK has threatened The Telegraph for reporting on his activities and taunted the authorities for failing to arrest him.
The smuggler, who goes by the name “Salar”, runs a Telegram group with hundreds of people in which he advertises illegal Channel crossings for about €2,500 (£2,105).
“No one has ever complained about me,” Salar wrote in the group, eight days after The Telegraph published a story about him, adding he was simply trying to “help my friends”.
“I’m in Calais – if I had done anything illegal, the police would have arrested me,” he wrote.
“Know your place and don’t make trouble for yourself,” he posted as the caption under a screenshot of the story. “I don’t have anything to hide, and I’m not afraid of anyone.”
Salar posted screenshots of The Telegraph article threatening and mocking journalists and law enforcement
Salar’s response – that he remains free and not behind bars despite openly advertising illegal crossings – underscores the challenge for authorities seeking to stop the criminal operations that facilitate migrant smuggling across borders.
In December, he advertised special Christmas deals to send people from France to the UK on boats as wind and water conditions appeared favourable from Dec 25 to 29.
During that period, the UK counted 1,776 migrants arriving by crossing the Channel – the second highest weekly record for the year, in a total of 38 boats, the greatest number of vessels to arrive within the span of a week in 2024.
On Dec 30, Salar promptly posted a picture of the UK government’s statistics on small boat arrivals along with a few smiley face emojis – confirmation of his success, and a way to entice more migrants to pay him, not another smuggler, to cross the Channel.
Salar openly mocks UK authorities by publishing the migrant figures in the chat
Salar appears to now be behaving more cautiously, instructing those in the group to ignore anyone contacting them, perhaps out of concern that they may be journalists or law enforcement officers.
He has repeatedly sought to cast himself as an “ethical” smuggler, both publicly in the group, and in direct messages with a Telegraph reporter.
While Salar initially responded as himself, he later changed tact and began speaking about himself in the third person, saying he was simply someone who helped to run the account; later, even claiming to be an immigration lawyer.
In those messages, Salar was described as a “poor man” who aimed “to help as much as he can…out of the goodness of his heart” in an attempt to make him more trustworthy and upstanding than other smugglers simply seeking to make a quick buck.
“He’s had no trouble with the French police or the [French] people regarding his work,” he said.
“He does not do illegal things in an illegal business – that’s why he is different from others.”
Other screenshots purport to show migrants, who used Salar, praising his services once safety in the UK
Matt Herbert, the head of research for North Africa and the Sahel at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime warned that people smuggling networks were a major challenge for cross-border policing as they were “highly resilient.”
“If you take down one [smuggler] it’s not like you really substantially disrupt the overall ecosystem,” he said. “It’s a very low bar to get involved – especially in the technical activities of human smuggling, like moving somebody from point A to point B.
“Those are the people who are most often apprehended – the actual smugglers driving the boats and cars, hosting the stash houses,” he said. But “those people can be replaced”.
Salar’s profile picture on the Telegram group shows a family enjoying a trip on a dinghy
In cases like Salar, law enforcement must determine at what point the crimes actually took place, whether it was at the time of advertisement, once money changed hands, or when a smuggler physically moved them across borders.
Even if police were to arrest a person like Salar, there may not be enough to bring a trial and subsequent conviction.
The reactive ‘whack-a-mole’ approach would be a temporary solution, as it may not halt much of the smuggling volume in the long run.
Tackling smuggling networks in a meaningful way requires cross-border policing – multiple teams across multiple jurisdictions.
“How do you build joint cases? How do you decide where prosecution takes place? When you talk about taking down a network, where does that actually happen? And what parts are taken down, and where?” said Mr Herbert.
Joint investigations can also be slowed by bureaucratic hurdles. Data-sharing between the UK and Europe, for instance, has become more complicated and cumbersome post-Brexit.
A still taken from a video on the group chat shows a group of Salar’s migrants during their journey across the Channel
Official channels between two countries or more can take weeks or months to send information back and forth, and the delays work in favour of the suspects.
Ivanka Hainzl, a specialist on human trafficking and smuggling at the International Centre for Migration Policy Development, a think tank headquartered in Vienna, said: “A big problem is that the perpetrators are very fast, and always – minimum – one step ahead of law enforcement.
“That’s why it’s very difficult [for criminals] to be caught – they are not there anymore when the police go.”
Following the money between migrants and smugglers is also tough, as it does not always mirror the movement of people. Transfers are typically arranged through a shadow banking system, which does not lend itself to the kind of records found in traditional banking.
Payments from migrants or their families to smugglers to secure a spot on crossings often move within informal payment networks where “the value moves, but the actual money does not move,” said Mr Herbert.
Existing laws must be strengthened to address smuggling networks. Changes have not kept pace, as smuggling is a relatively new criminal phenomenon, said Ms Hainzl.
French police did not respond to a request for comment.