The UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) arrested a 25-year-old woman in Wrexham and a 25-year-old man in Newcastle upon Tyne on March 30.
In coordinated raids, French police arrested 16 additional suspects in and around Paris, with support from Europol, Eurojust and Belgian federal police. Officers also found 41 migrants, including 11 housed at a single address.
The arrests are linked to the same investigation that saw five men detained and charged in north-west England and South Yorkshire in February. All five are alleged to be key figures in a Vietnamese organised crime group smuggling migrants from France to the UK in lorries and small boats.
Alex Cruise, senior investigating officer at the NCA, said the operation demonstrated close cooperation with French counterparts in tackling networks behind dangerous crossings to the UK.
The woman arrested in Wrexham is suspected of laundering money for the group, while the man detained in Newcastle upon Tyne is believed to have coordinated activities through lower-level members.
Separately, specialist officers from the NCA’s National Extradition Unit arrested a 26-year-old man in Birmingham under a warrant issued by French authorities. He is suspected of managing accommodation for migrants en route to the UK and has been remanded in custody pending extradition proceedings.
Investigators believe the group facilitated migrants travelling by commercial flights from Vietnam to central and eastern Europe before moving them onwards to France, and then to the UK by small boats and lorries.
The group is also suspected of retaining the genuine Vietnamese passports of migrants as a form of debt bondage.
Cruise said tackling people smuggling remains a priority for the agency, with around 100 ongoing investigations targeting networks involved in organising or facilitating such journeys.
UK minister for border security and asylum Alex Norris said the arrests underscored cooperation with France in confronting criminal networks behind Channel crossings and efforts to strengthen enforcement powers against people smugglers.