"They were willing to put them in dangerous environments"
Six members of a crime group have been convicted of smuggling hundreds of migrants into the UK illegally.
The Teesside-based group’s figurehead Muhammad Zada coordinated at least five conspiracies to smuggle Iraqi-Kurdish migrants into the UK from mainland Europe in 2017.
His associates were responsible for recruiting drivers and facilitating the movement of people into the country.
They were: Pareiz Abdullah, Khalid Mahmud, Marek Sochanic, Gurprit Kahlon and Bestoon Moslih.
The group charged migrants between £5,000 and £10,000. In exchange, they were hidden in vehicles, including refrigerated lorry trailers, and brought to the UK.
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 at Calais on his second trip and eight migrants were discovered in the van hidden among furniture.
Milan Sochanic was subsequently convicted of people smuggling offences in France.
Zada 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 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.
In the following days, Zada and his associates arranged for migrants to be hidden inside a campervan, as well as in vans among bicycle boxes and a shipment of mattresses.
On all three occasions, the journeys were intercepted by authorities – twice in France and once in Belgium.
The gang also duped drivers to unwittingly smuggle migrants by tasking them to transport legitimate commodities between the UK to mainland Europe.
People were then loaded into vehicles without the driver’s knowledge.
Prior to these attempts, Zada is believed to have successfully smuggled hundreds of migrants into the UK.
Zada and other members 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, Mohammed Zada 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.
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, 2024.
Martin Clarke, NCA Branch Commander, said: “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.
“This result is testament to the successful partnership working of the NCA, law enforcement agencies on the continent and UK regional police forces.
“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.
“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.”
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