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Man who recruited taxi drivers to smuggle people across the English Channel is jailed

Man jailed for hiring taxi drivers to help smuggle migrants to France An unemployed man who orchestrated a conspiracy involving a group of taxi drivers to smuggle migrants illegally to France has been jailed. Madjid Belabes, 53, arranged for five cab drivers to collect migrants in London and transport them to lay-bys and service stations in Kent, where they were transferred into lorries bound for France. Prosecutors estimated he ran the operation at least 26 times between December 2022 and September 2023, earning around ??287,000, with migrants paying roughly ??1,200 each. In one incident in February 2023, 58 migrants ??? Moroccan, Tunisian and Algerian nationals ??? reached France before being discovered. All had entered the UK legally on visitor visas. Belabes pleaded guilty on 29 October 2023, on the third day of a three-week group trial. He was later convicted of possessing more than ??11,000 in criminal cash and sentenced to 10 years and nine months in prison at Kingston Crown Court. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said it would pursue further proceedings to recover as much of his illegal profits as possible. During the trial, four of the five drivers admitted taking part in the activities of an organised crime group. The fifth, Said Bouazza, was convicted by a jury. The drivers ??? Samir Zerguine, 52; Mourad Bouchlaghem, 44; Mohamed Mabrouk, 44; Mohamed Issaoun, 49; Issaoun, and Bouazza, 55 ??? are due to be sentenced on 23 January 2026. All six men are Algerian nationals, and Belabes is said to have recruited the drivers because their work gave them a plausible reason for carrying multiple passengers. Phone records examined by the National Crime Agency (NCA) linked four drivers to Belabes, while one, Mourad Bouhlaghem, was captured on CCTV meeting Belabes in London before passengers were seen entering his vehicle.
Madjid Belabes arranged for taxi drivers to smuggle migrants into France (Picture: CPS)

A man will spend almost 11 years behind bars after hiring taxi drivers to smuggle migrants out of Britain.

Madjid Belabes, 53, arranged for five taxi drivers to take people from London to lay-bys in Kent before being put in lorries and taken to France. 

He made at least £287,000 from the plot, charging on average £1,200 for each person.

In one incident in February 2023, 58 people from Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria managed to get as far as France before they were discovered.

Man jailed for hiring taxi drivers to help smuggle migrants to France An unemployed man who orchestrated a conspiracy involving a group of taxi drivers to smuggle migrants illegally to France has been jailed. Madjid Belabes, 53, arranged for five cab drivers to collect migrants in London and transport them to lay-bys and service stations in Kent, where they were transferred into lorries bound for France. Prosecutors estimated he ran the operation at least 26 times between December 2022 and September 2023, earning around ??287,000, with migrants paying roughly ??1,200 each. In one incident in February 2023, 58 migrants ??? Moroccan, Tunisian and Algerian nationals ??? reached France before being discovered. All had entered the UK legally on visitor visas. Belabes pleaded guilty on 29 October 2023, on the third day of a three-week group trial. He was later convicted of possessing more than ??11,000 in criminal cash and sentenced to 10 years and nine months in prison at Kingston Crown Court. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said it would pursue further proceedings to recover as much of his illegal profits as possible. During the trial, four of the five drivers admitted taking part in the activities of an organised crime group. The fifth, Said Bouazza, was convicted by a jury. The drivers ??? Samir Zerguine, 52; Mourad Bouchlaghem, 44; Mohamed Mabrouk, 44; Mohamed Issaoun, 49; Issaoun, and Bouazza, 55 ??? are due to be sentenced on 23 January 2026. All six men are Algerian nationals, and Belabes is said to have recruited the drivers because their work gave them a plausible reason for carrying multiple passengers. Phone records examined by the National Crime Agency (NCA) linked four drivers to Belabes, while one, Mourad Bouhlaghem, was captured on CCTV meeting Belabes in London before passengers were seen entering his vehicle.
The cabbies Belabes hired – including Mohamed Issaoun (left) and Mourad Bouchlaghem – were also jailed (Picture: Crown Prosecution Service)

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They had all been in the UK legally on visitor visas.

Prosecutors argued that Belabes masterminded the illegal transportation of people 26 times between December 2022 and September 2023. 

He pleaded guilty on October 29 and was found guilty yesterday of possessing more than £11,000 in cash from his crimes and sentenced to a total of 10 years and nine months behind bars.

During the trial, four 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.

Belabes hired them because they would have a credible excuse for having multiple people in their car if they were stopped, the Crown Prosecution Service said.

Man jailed for hiring taxi drivers to help smuggle migrants to France An unemployed man who orchestrated a conspiracy involving a group of taxi drivers to smuggle migrants illegally to France has been jailed. Madjid Belabes, 53, arranged for five cab drivers to collect migrants in London and transport them to lay-bys and service stations in Kent, where they were transferred into lorries bound for France. Prosecutors estimated he ran the operation at least 26 times between December 2022 and September 2023, earning around ??287,000, with migrants paying roughly ??1,200 each. In one incident in February 2023, 58 migrants ??? Moroccan, Tunisian and Algerian nationals ??? reached France before being discovered. All had entered the UK legally on visitor visas. Belabes pleaded guilty on 29 October 2023, on the third day of a three-week group trial. He was later convicted of possessing more than ??11,000 in criminal cash and sentenced to 10 years and nine months in prison at Kingston Crown Court. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said it would pursue further proceedings to recover as much of his illegal profits as possible. During the trial, four of the five drivers admitted taking part in the activities of an organised crime group. The fifth, Said Bouazza, was convicted by a jury. The drivers ??? Samir Zerguine, 52; Mourad Bouchlaghem, 44; Mohamed Mabrouk, 44; Mohamed Issaoun, 49; Issaoun, and Bouazza, 55 ??? are due to be sentenced on 23 January 2026. All six men are Algerian nationals, and Belabes is said to have recruited the drivers because their work gave them a plausible reason for carrying multiple passengers. Phone records examined by the National Crime Agency (NCA) linked four drivers to Belabes, while one, Mourad Bouhlaghem, was captured on CCTV meeting Belabes in London before passengers were seen entering his vehicle.
Samir Zerguine (left) and Mohamed Mabrouk (Picture: Crown Prosecution Service)

Four of the drivers were linked to Belabes from call and text records found on their mobile phones.

Bouhlaghem was captured on CCTV meeting Belabes in London and placing people in his car. Other drivers were also present.

CPS prosecutor Andrew Hudson said people smugglers 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,’ he added.

John Turner, a senior investigating officer at the National Crime Agency, 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.

Man jailed for hiring taxi drivers to help smuggle migrants to France An unemployed man who orchestrated a conspiracy involving a group of taxi drivers to smuggle migrants illegally to France has been jailed. Madjid Belabes, 53, arranged for five cab drivers to collect migrants in London and transport them to lay-bys and service stations in Kent, where they were transferred into lorries bound for France. Prosecutors estimated he ran the operation at least 26 times between December 2022 and September 2023, earning around ??287,000, with migrants paying roughly ??1,200 each. In one incident in February 2023, 58 migrants ??? Moroccan, Tunisian and Algerian nationals ??? reached France before being discovered. All had entered the UK legally on visitor visas. Belabes pleaded guilty on 29 October 2023, on the third day of a three-week group trial. He was later convicted of possessing more than ??11,000 in criminal cash and sentenced to 10 years and nine months in prison at Kingston Crown Court. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said it would pursue further proceedings to recover as much of his illegal profits as possible. During the trial, four of the five drivers admitted taking part in the activities of an organised crime group. The fifth, Said Bouazza, was convicted by a jury. The drivers ??? Samir Zerguine, 52; Mourad Bouchlaghem, 44; Mohamed Mabrouk, 44; Mohamed Issaoun, 49; Issaoun, and Bouazza, 55 ??? are due to be sentenced on 23 January 2026. All six men are Algerian nationals, and Belabes is said to have recruited the drivers because their work gave them a plausible reason for carrying multiple passengers. Phone records examined by the National Crime Agency (NCA) linked four drivers to Belabes, while one, Mourad Bouhlaghem, was captured on CCTV meeting Belabes in London before passengers were seen entering his vehicle.
Said Bouazz (Picture: Crown Prosecution Service)

‘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.’

It comes after two Romanian nationals were jailed this week for attempting to smuggle almost 50 people across the Channel in lorries in a separate operation.

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