Head of smuggling gang who brought hundreds of people into the UK jailed - but remains at large

The head of a smuggling gang who is thought to have brought hundreds of migrants into the UK has been jailed for 20 years.

Muhammad Zada, 43, was sentenced in his absence at Newcastle Crown Court on Friday after he absconded earlier this year, and the National Crime Agency (NCA) said work to locate him is "ongoing". Middlesbrough-based Zada and his five associates tried to bring people into the UK in vans and a refrigerated lorry, the NCA said.

According to the agency, Zada co-ordinated at least five conspiracies to smuggle 35 Iraqi-Kurdish and Vietnamese migrants into the UK from France, Belgium and the Netherlands in 2017.

NCA investigators believe he is likely to have successfully smuggled hundreds of migrants into the UK prior to these known attempts. Each person was charged between £5,000 and £10,000 by the gang to be hidden in vehicles and brought to the UK, a spokesman said.

Zada was found guilty of conspiring to facilitate breaches of immigration law earlier this year along with Pareiz Abdullah, 41, and Marek Sochanic, 40. Gurprit Khalon, 67, Bestoon Moslih, 41, and Khalid Mahmud, 50, admitted the same offence.

Zada, Khalon, Sochanic and Pareiz were jailed on Friday, but Moslih and Mahmud will be sentenced at a later date. Like Zada, Sochanic was sentenced in his absence after absconding before the start of their trial in July.

The NCA spokesman said: "Work to locate the pair and bring them into custody is ongoing."

The NCA said Zada used a van with "Milan Builders" on the side and also arranged for migrants to be hidden inside a campervan, as well as in vehicles among bicycle boxes and a shipment of mattresses. Footage captured by NCA officers monitoring Zada's movements showed him examining the campervan hired by his co-conspirator Khalon to transport the migrants from France.

In one case, they organised for migrants to be smuggled from France and the Netherlands to the UK in a refrigerated lorry trailer containing fruit and vegetables, but Dutch police located 12 Vietnamese migrants - including children as young as four years old - due to be loaded into the truck.

Leading members of the gang were arrested during an operation in 2018 involving around 350 officers from the NCA, the North East Regional Organised Crime Unit and the Cleveland, Durham and Northumbria police forces.

Zada was arrested at his home in Wynyard, near Middlesbrough, where his white Range Rover worth around £100,000 was parked on the driveway, the NCA said. It said Zada was separately jailed for five-and-a-half years in October 2018 for his leading role in a crime syndicate that smuggled more than two million cigarettes into the UK hidden among a shipment of fridge freezers.

NCA branch commander Martin Clarke said: "Today's outcome is the result of tireless efforts to dismantle people smuggling networks and ensure those treating people as commodities and putting lives at risk are put behind bars.

"The NCA alone has more than 70 ongoing investigations into networks or individuals operating at the top tier of this crime type, and working with our partners internationally and domestically, as seen in this case, is a key component of our work to tackle organised immigration crime and human trafficking."