The National Crime Agency (NCA) has dismantled a ruthless people smuggling network following a four-year investigation and surveillance operation. The gang, operating out of West Sussex and other locations across the UK, was caught moving illegal migrants, including children, hidden inside lorries and cars.
On March 11, 2019, officers tracked the gang as a VW Touran met a lorry driven by Romanian national Marinel Danut Palage, 31, at an industrial estate in Runcton, West Sussex. The lorry had just arrived from France carrying a cargo of spinach but was also transporting at least three stowaway migrants.
The migrants were transferred into two other vehicles nearby. The NCA stopped a Vauxhall Astra on the A34, which was carrying two Iraqi children aged 18 and 13, and arrested the driver, gang member Mariwan Mustafa, 33. Another vehicle, an Audi A3 on the M3, contained a 30-year-old Iraqi woman.
Palage attempted to flee but was apprehended near the cab, where officers discovered plastic bags containing £34,500 in cash. An additional £7,000 in euros and pounds was hidden behind a tachograph panel.
Later that morning, the VW Touran stopped near Liphook. Goran Jalal, 37, of Bradford and the alleged ringleader, was in contact with Palage to arrange the meet-up but evaded arrest and is currently wanted by authorities. Kamaran Kader, 44, also from Bradford, was arrested in the passenger seat.
Phone and forensic evidence, including fingerprints on money bags, linked several gang members across cities such as Middlesbrough and Manchester. Investigators uncovered at least two other smuggling incidents into Portsmouth earlier that year.
Following a four-week trial at Bournemouth Crown Court, Palage and Pshtewan Ghafour, 37, of Middlesbrough, were found guilty of conspiring to facilitate illegal immigration. Kamaran Kader pled guilty prior to the trial. Jamal Saied, 38, and Mariwan Mustafa were also convicted. Hemin Salih, 37, absconded before the trial but was convicted in his absence.
Sentencing for Palage, Ghafour, and Kader is scheduled for April 13, with Saied, Mustafa, and Salih due to be sentenced on April 20.
NCA Branch Commander Richard Harrison said: “This gang was willing to put vulnerable migrants, including children, inside refrigerated lorries for hours during dangerous Channel crossings. Their sole motive was profit – with zero care for human life. We will keep disrupting these criminal networks at every turn.”
Warrants remain outstanding for Goran Jalal and Hemin Salih. Anyone with information is urged to contact the NCA at 0370 4967622 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.
Originally published by UKNIP.
