A people trafficking gang which smuggled hundreds of Iraqi-Kurdish migrants into the UK in refrigerated lorry trailers has been convicted.
Gang leader Muhammad Zada, 43, and his associates charged migrants between £5,000 and £10,000 to be hidden in lorries, including among furniture, and brought to the UK.
Zada, from Middlesbrough, masterminded at least five conspiracies to smuggle migrants into the UK from mainland Europe in 2017.
Also convicted were associates who helped recruit drivers for the smuggling: Pareiz Abdullah, 41, Khalid Mahmud, 50, Marek Sochanic, 39, Gurprit Kahlon, 67, and Bestoon Moslih, 41.
The group is thought to have been behind “bringing hundreds, if not thousands, of people into the UK illegally,” the National Crime Agency said.
Zada and co-conspirator Sochanic were convicted in their absence at Newcastle Crown Court on July 11, having absconded before the trial began. A manhunt is underway to bring them into custody.
The court heard how the first arrest was made when Sochanic’s father drove a van from the UK to Belgium twice to collect migrants in 2017.
He was stopped by French police at Calais, who discovered eight migrants hidden among furniture in the van, and was convicted of people smuggling offences in France.
Ringleader Zada had purchased the van and arranged for “Milan Builders” to be painted on the side in a bid to avoid detection.
On another occasion, the gang organised for migrants to be smuggled from France and the Netherlands to the UK in the back of refrigerated lorry trailers containing fruit and vegetables.
But the return journey from Rotterdam was foiled by Dutch police who located 12 migrants due to be loaded into the lorry.
In the days that followed, Zada and his lieutenants arranged for migrants to be hidden inside a camper van, as well as in vans among bicycle boxes and a shipment of mattresses.
On all three occasions the journeys were intercepted by police – twice in France and once in Belgium.
The crime group also duped drivers to unknowingly smuggle migrants by tasking them to transport legitimate goods between the UK to mainland Europe.
Zada and other major members of the gang were arrested in February 2018.
He was found guilty of five counts of conspiring to facilitate breaches of immigration law.
Marek Sochanic, Khaled Mahmud and Pareiz Abdullah were found guilty on one count of the same charge.
Meanwhile, Gurprit Kahlon and Bestoon Moslih both pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to facilitate breaches of immigration law at earlier court hearings.
All six men will be sentenced on September 20.
Martin Clarke, NCA Branch Commander, said: “Zada and his organised crime group didn’t care about safety and wellbeing of the human beings they were trafficking.
“They were willing to put them in dangerous environments like refrigerated lorries, all for a quick payday.
“We continue to work tirelessly alongside key international partners to disrupt the criminal networks treating people as commodities and putting lives at risk.”
