Main content
BBC exposes UK links of violent Channel smuggling gang
Undercover reporters have tracked the operations of a powerful Iraqi gang. (Image: BBC)
A BBC investigation has exposed the French operations and UK links of a powerful and violent smuggling gang taking people across the English Channel in small boats.
A reporter posing as a migrant wanting to cross helped us gain unprecedented access to the smugglers' notorious forest hideout in northern France - an area plagued by armed battles between rival gangs.
Secret filming at a major UK railway station also captured associates of the gang collecting cash payments to secure places on illegal Channel-crossings.
The BBC's special correspondent Andrew Harding reports.
