French court convicts 18 in a major trial that casts light on the deadly migrant-smuggling trade

A French court found 18 people guilty Tuesday in a major migrant-smuggling trial that shed light on the lucrative but often deadly clandestine business of transporting people on flimsy boats across the perilous sea from France to the U.K.

The defendants were swept up in a pan-European police operation in 2022 that led to dozens of arrests and the seizure of boats, life jackets, outboard engines, paddles, and cash.

The court in Lille, northern France, sentenced one of the ringleaders, Mirkhan Rasoul, a 26-year-old from Iraq, to 15 years in prison and a fine of 200,000 euros ($218,000). Rasoul attended the trial in a secured plexiglass box and under the surveillance of armed police.

Other sentences ranged from two years to 10 years in prison.