National Crime Agency Jamal Owda was one of 23 people arrested

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Jamal Owda was arrested in a Liverpool refugee shelter on suspicion of being one of 23 people involved in an international migrant smuggling network. The National Crime Agency swooped on the 26-year-old Palestinian national in the hostel in Sephton Park, Liverpool, as part of a series of simultaneous raids across Europe organised by Europol. He is alleged to be the ringleader of a gang responsible for smuggling 100 migrants into western Europe EVERY DAY since 2013. The gang allegedly exploited migrants from war-torn Syria through Turkey and on to western Europe for sky-high fees.

Other suspects were detained in police operations in Greece, Austria and Sweden, and included mainly Syrians and Greeks. A police spokesman said: “Several actions took place simultaneously. “As a result, the criminal group was dismantled, and a total of 23 suspects were arrested. “Seven in Austria, 13 in Greece, two in Sweden and one in the United Kingdom. “The identified smugglers were predominantly of Syrian and Greek origin, but also Palestinian. “The organised crime group’s alleged leader was arrested by officers from the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) at an address in Liverpool.”

Police allege smugglers had been providing migrants with housing, forged documents and travel to help them make the journey from Syria, through Turkey and Greece and across the Balkans into Western Europe. The migrants paid the gang via money-transfer services or with cash. In a bid to stay below the radar of authorities, gang members had been communicating via mobile phone as well as online chatrooms and social media. Police said Owda had been living in the UK for a year and was in the process of claiming asylum in the UK.

National Crime Agency Jamal Owda was held on a European Arrest Warrant

GETTY Migrants walk through Europe

Owda, who has not been charged, was held on a European Arrest Warrant and will appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court today where police will be seeking to have him extradited to Greece to face charges there. Graham Roberts, NCA spokesman, said: "As a result of joint working with the Greek authorities we have located and arrested a Palestinian man believed to be the head of a crime group responsible for smuggling around 100 Syrian migrants a day from Greece into western Europe.

NATIONAL CRIME AGENCY Jamal Owda

“The NCA-led UK taskforce targeting people smuggling networks was involved in this operation and will continue to work with agencies in the UK and overseas to pursue, disrupt and prosecute anyone that preys on vulnerable people in order to line their own pockets.” The NCA was asked by the Prime Minister earlier this year to lead a UK law enforcement Organised Immigration Crime Taskforce. Investigators from the NCA and Immigration Enforcement, supported by financial experts, are targeting criminal networks behind people smuggling in the Mediterranean.

GETTY Migrants dash across a border