Member

Immediately after the election, we began to strengthen our international collaboration to go after those criminal gangs, including by increasing the number of National Crime Agency officers in Europol, setting up the new Border Security Command and making the new agreement with the G7. Already, that strengthened collaboration is delivering results. In the last few weeks alone, we have seen the arrest of a major suspect in the supply of boats and engines to the channel; this involved co-operation between Belgium, the Netherlands and the UK. A major operation last week against a Syrian and Iraqi Kurdish gang operating through Germany and France was led by French police but was supported by intelligence from the NCA and involved 500 German police officers. It delivered not just a series of arrests of suspected gang members but the seizure of multiple boats and engines destined for the channel—boats that could have led to thousands of people making dangerous journeys.