NCA dismantled a gang of six people, who allegedly smuggled over 100 migrants into the UK. |NCA
London: An Indian-origin man, along with five accomplices, has been convicted of orchestrating a human smuggling operation into the United Kingdom. Gurprit Singh Peter Kahlon, 67, and his gang members were found guilty after a six-week trial in Teesside for smuggling hundreds of Iraqi-Kurdish migrants into the UK, as per the National Crime Agency(NCA) report.
The gang charged between £5,000 and £10,000 per person, using various deceptive methods including hiding migrants in vehicles such as refrigerated lorries and mattresses. They also duped unwitting drivers into transporting migrants without their knowledge.
The convicted traffickers—Gurprit Kahlon, Muhammad Zada, Pareiz Abdullah, Khalid Mahmud, Marek Sochanic, and Bestoon Moslih—were involved in multiple smuggling operations, utilising diverse vehicles and containers from France and Belgium. Kahlon, a key figure in the gang led by Muhammad Zada, was responsible for recruiting drivers and facilitating the illegal entry of migrants into the country.
According to the NCA, the first arrest was made in March 2017, when Milan Sochanic – Marek Sochanic’s father – drove a van from the UK to Belgium on two occasions to collect and transport people. He was stopped by French police in Calais on his second trip, and eight migrants were discovered hidden in the van among furniture. Milan Sochanic was subsequently convicted of people smuggling offences in France.
Zada had purchased the van and arranged for ‘Milan Builders’ to be painted on the side before plotting the journeys with the help of Marek Sochanic. On another occasion, the crime group 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. The return journey from Rotterdam was foiled by Dutch police, who located 12 migrants due to be loaded into the lorry.
Footage captured by NCA officers revealed Zada inspecting a campervan hired by Kahlon to transport migrants from France. Zada and other leading members of the smuggling network were arrested in a major strike across northeast England coordinated by the NCA in February 2018. The operation comprised around 350 officers from the NCA and its partners, including the North East Regional Organised Crime Unit and regional police forces.
Following a trial at Newcastle Crown Court, Muhammad Zada was found guilty of five counts of conspiring to facilitate breaches of immigration law. Marek Sochanic, Khalid Mahmud, and Pareiz Abdullah were found guilty of one count of the same charge. Gurprit Kahlon and Bestoon Moslih both pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to facilitate breaches of immigration law at earlier court hearings. Zada and Sochanic were convicted in their absence, having absconded before the trial began. Work to locate the pair and bring them into custody is ongoing. All six men will be sentenced on September 20.
Martin Clarke, NCA Branch Commander, stated, “Our extensive investigation has seen us uncover and dismantle a major people-smuggling network with ambitions of bringing hundreds, if not thousands, of people into the UK illegally.”
The NCA report added, “Zada and his organised crime group didn’t care about the safety and well-being 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. Tackling this crime type is a top priority for us – the NCA alone has more than 70 ongoing investigations into networks or individuals in the top tier of organised immigration crime or human trafficking.”
