- Do YOU have a story?
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YOU → have → story
Cutting through France's Champagne region, the A26 is used by so many British tourists on the drive to or from their holiday gites and campsites that it is affectionately known as 'Autoroute des Anglais' – the English motorway.
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it → cut → Anglais
But the 223-mile route from the port of Calais to the historic medieval city of Troyes is starting to earn a new, rather more sinister nickname: 'Autoroute vers l'Angleterre' – the motorway to England.
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route → start → England
And that's because the high-speed expressway has become increasingly notorious as the route of choice for the people smugglers whose human cargoes are invariably intending to get to the UK by small boat.
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cargoes → become → boat
The rest-stops and services – or aires – which are dotted along the A26 will be familiar to countless British motorists as innocuous places where they stop to refuel, to eat a filled baguette or croque monsieur or simply take a restorative nap.
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they → dot → nap
But as darkness falls, these aires become key rendezvous points for the gangsters who are picking up or dropping off migrants ready to be moved at the last minute to beaches to attempt to cross the Channel.
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who → fall → Channel
While regular motorists flock to outlets like Autogrill or La Croissanterie, in the murkier corners, and the quieter parking areas, military-style operations are under way.
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operations → flock → way
The A26 motorway running through France is used by British tourists on the drive to or from their holiday gites and campsites - but is also used to bring thousands of migrants to the UK
IThe rest-stops and services – or aires – which are dotted along the A26 have become key rendezvous points for the gangsters who are picking up or dropping off migrants
Last week the A26 highway was in the public glare when a suspected people trafficker sat in the driver's seat of a British-registered van was shot dead at Aire Champ l'Épée outside Troyes
Migrants who have been ferried by car or van from various parts of France or Germany at carefully allotted times – switch vehicles before being moved to the final stop on their road journey to avoid detection by the French police.
And with migrants typically being charged up to £2,000 for their dangerous crossing – meaning a single mega-dinghy crossing can earn the gangs almost £500,000 – the stakes are high.
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stakes → run → 500,000
Consequently the competition between rival gangsters is becoming steadily more ruthless.
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competition → become → gangsters
This point was made starkly on Friday last week when a 47-year-old man who had been sitting in the driving seat of a British registered van was shot dead at Aire Champ l'Épée outside Troyes.
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who → make → Troyes
One man was arrested at the scene but others fled before police arrived.
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police → arrest → scene
In the back of the van police found ten migrants huddled in fear.
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police → find → fear
The murder of the suspected people-smuggler was this week upgraded to a full organised crime enquiry conducted by France's National Anti-Organised Crime Prosecutor's Office, which is based in Paris.
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which → suspect → Paris
A senior investigating source told the Daily Mail that despite the vehicle's registration status the victim is not thought to be British but foreign born.
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victim → investigate → status
He is thought to be a member of the Iraqi-Kurdish gangs which have largely controlled the trafficking routes for some time but are now being challenged by newer rivals from Eastern Europe.
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which → think → Europe
It is thought he was either due to take his migrant passengers, who came from various countries across Africa and Asia, towards the coast around Calais or further west, possibly as far as Normandy.
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who → think → Normandy
Or he may have been dropping them off for someone else to undertake this final leg.
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someone → drop → leg
But what is clear is what happened next: he was shot in the head, dying at the scene.
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he → happen → scene
The source said: 'This has all the hallmarks of a gangland killing carried out by an international syndicate.
'
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This → say → syndicate
They make millions of pounds from the trade in human life to Britain, and all work ruthlessly to protect their routes, especially along the "English Motorway".
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all → make → Motorway
'Iraqi-Kurd gangs have been in control of the lucrative trade for many months now, but others from places such as Bulgaria and Albania are increasingly trying to cut in.
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others → try → Bulgaria
That's usually why these shootings happen.
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shootings → happen → ?
The motorway rest areas are isolated, and often not covered by video cameras.
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areas → isolate → cameras
They are obviously designed for vehicles to come in and out, so the gangs can operate freely at all times of the day and night without attracting much attention.
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gangs → design → attention
They can complete any kind of business there – from organising the transportation of migrants to settling scores.
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They → complete → scores
The smugglers are thought to favour UK-registered vehicles for one rather obvious reason: on 'the English motorway' they blend in and do not tend to attract police nearly as much as plates from, say, Bulgaria or Albania might.
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plates → think → Bulgaria
The fact that the van was UK-registered may also indicate that the driver, his criminal associates or both may have previously obtained residency in Britain – and so live here.
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driver → register → Britain
This would mean that, having dropped off their final human cargo, they themselves would be free to return to their homes here as seemingly ordinary passengers on ferry or LeShuttle.
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they → mean → ferry
The scale of the number of British-registered vans hopping across the Channel to move migrants up and down the A26 is impossible to quantify because it is a phenomenon police are only beginning to understand, but it's feared that this incident is only the tip of the iceberg.
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incident → register → iceberg
Investigators are currently keeping the identities of all those involved in the latest shooting confidential – including both the victim and the suspected gunman – as they try to trace others who might be connected with the crime.
But the source said that gangs have started to move their operations further inland away from the squalid woodland camps around Calais, Dunkirk and Boulogne-sur-Mer due to an increase in police surveillance there.
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gangs → keep → surveillance
Because although French police are notoriously reluctant to interfere once the migrants are in the water – they have lately become much more effective at intercepting both small boats and their passengers before they are able to put to sea.
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they → interfere → sea
Migrants, mostly from Afghanistan, the Middle East and Africa, arrive in France from Italy or Germany ready to pay cash to get across to Britain.
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Migrants → arrive → Britain
Rather than housing them in the Calais camps, where they would be under the watchful eyes of the police, they are instead put up in budget hotels and hostels dotted around northern France, mainly within easy reach of an Autoroute.
They are then given a time to meet and are picked up in vans and taken to one of the rest-stops used by the gangs on the A26 before being transported north in a second vehicle to avoid detection.
The drive from Troyes to Calais, skirting around the cities of Reims and Lens, takes around 3.5 hours.
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drive → house → hours
Once on the coast, the migrants are dropped off at a third meeting point close to the shoreline to await being picked up in a small 'taxi boat' usually within an hour – as this is the point when they are most likely to be stopped.
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they → drop → hour
The taxi boat then takes them out to a mega-dinghy further out to sea.
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boat → take → sea
These are 18m long and can have as many as 230 people crammed onboard.
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people → have → ?
Close to the shore operations to deter the smugglers are run by the French Frontier Police (PAF).
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operations → deter → Police
A PAF officer confirmed: 'The gangs charge thousands for a passage across Europe, following journeys from Africa and the Middle East.
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gangs → confirm → Africa
This means there is money available to look after the migrants anywhere in France – in small cheap hotels or hostels – before they finally travel on to the Channel beaches, to get on board a boat.
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they → mean → boat
The A26 contains 35 aires de repos – simple rest stops with few facilities beyond toilets – and 14 aires de service which are full-blown service stations, with at least a 24/7 petrol station, fast food restaurants and shops.
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which → contain → station
…and 28 more, not listed.
The Aporia
