FIVE men have been jailed for a total of almost 24 years for running a large-scale people smuggling ring bringing Kurdish migrants into the UK hidden in the back of lorries.
Manchester Crown Court heard how Tarik Namik, aged 45 headed up the organised crime group that became the subject of a National Crime Agency(NCA) investigation in 2017.
Namik operated a sophisticated, lucrative criminal enterprise transporting migrants from Iraq and Iran and had connections with other people smugglers overseas.
Working for him were Hajar Ahmed, 39 and Soran Saliy, 32 who would help co-ordinate the UK leg of the operation.
Habil Gider, 54 would act as an escort for some of the migrants once they were in the UK, while Hardi Alizada, 32 travelled out to Europe to co-ordinate from there.
The gang operated a sophisticated and lucrative criminal enterprise, utilising complicit lorry drivers usually from Turkey.
Recordings found on Namik’s phone suggest that he may have been involved in the smuggling of at least 1,900 migrants from the Balkans into France or Germany during a 50-day period, charging around 1,800 euros per migrant.
The group would then offer two separate means of getting to the UK, which would incur extra cost.
Namik’s operation was finally dismantled in April 2018, when he, Ahmed and Saliy were arrested by officers from the NCA. Alizada was arrested in Nottingham in February 2019 and charged in connection with his role.
All five admitted charges against them during a series of previous hearings. On Friday 9 December they were collectively sentenced to 23 years and 11 months at Manchester Crown Court.
Tariq Namik failed to attend court for the hearing. He was sentenced in his absence and a warrant has now been issued for his arrest.