Two Turkish-led People smuggling gangs arrested

After dawn raids on 12 locations in London and one in the British Midlands that resulted in 13 arrests, Scotland Yard officials said they had broken up two Turkish-led gangs engaged in “large-scale human smuggling” into Britain. Police commanders said the gangs charged Chinese migrants up to $42,000 each for journeys that could take up to 18 months, with stopovers at safe houses in Belgium and France, where additional arrests were made. The police said the raids demonstrated a resolve by European governments to curb criminal gangs that run an underground railroad for illegal immigrants along with other rackets that include heroin smuggling and money laundering.