A lorry full of Bangladeshi migrants was stopped from trying to cross the Channel and leave Britain.
Officers arrested and charged five people as part of a National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation.
Officials were targeting a suspected organised crime group involved in smuggling migrants out of the UK in lorries.
A number of taxis had driven the group down from London to a location near Whitstable, Kent.
Officials observed 23 people being loaded onto a lorry which was subsequently stopped by NCA officers as it approached the ferry port in Dover.
The 23 were all subsequently offloaded from the lorry. One was arrested by Immigration Enforcement for immigration offences, the rest were found to be in the UK legally and were released.
Officers arrested three taxi drivers, all men aged between 43 and 55, on suspicion of facilitating illegal immigration, as was the 32-year-old Romanian lorry driver.
Shuhal Ahmed, the 43-year-old suspected ringleader, based in New Cross, south-east London, was arrested and £30,000 in cash was seized at his house.
The migrants were discovered in the back of the lorry
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NATIONAL CRIME AGENCY
The three taxi drivers, Robuil Islam, 49, Qasim Jan, 54, and Shamim Ahmed, 47 were all arrested, as was Ivan Garaga, 31, a Ukrainian born lorry driver with a Romanian passport.
NCA Branch Commander Saju Sasikumar said: “This operation has been the culmination of an investigation that has been ongoing for a number of months.
“Organised crime groups involved in people smuggling risk the safety of those they transport, and also threaten the border security of both the UK and France.
“Tackling organised immigration crime remains a top priority for the NCA and this investigation is one of around 100 ongoing investigations into networks or individuals in the top tier of this type of criminality.”
The group were stopped at the port
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PA