Fugitive chief of individuals smuggler gang handed 20 yr jail sentence

A fugitive who was the ringleader of a gang that smuggled migrants into the UK has been given a 20-year prison sentence in his absence. 

Muhammad Zada, 43, co-ordinated at least five attempts to transport Iraqi-Kurds, including young children, into the UK from mainland Europe in 2017. 

The migrants were concealed in vehicles such as a refrigerated lorry where they were hidden amongst pallets packed with fruit and vegetables or in vans carrying bikes and furniture, which had hidden compartments for humans.

They were charged between £5,000 and £10,000 by the crime group to be smuggled into the UK. 

Zada, from Stockton in Teeside, is currently on the run from the authorities. But in his absence Newcastle Crown Court handed him a 20 year prison sentence.

His associates Pareiz Abdullah, 41, Khalid Mahmud, 50, Marek Sochanic, 39, Gurprit Kahlon and 67, Bestoon Moslih, 41, were responsible for recruiting drivers and facilitating the movement of people. 

Abdullah was jailed for six years and Khalon for seven years. Mahmud and Moslih will be sentenced at later hearings.

Meanwhile, Sochanic who is also on the run was given six years in his absence. 

Judge Christopher Prince said: ‘You each stood to make financial gain from the clearly dangerous, albeit different degrees of danger, modes of transport which were being adopted to evade immigration control.’

He said the ‘obvious’ risks included people being packed into tight, concealed spaces in vehicles which could have been subject to delays which left them deprived of food and water or with too much or too little heat.

The judge said the vehicles could have been involved in road accidents and there was a risk the concealed compartments could have collapsed or the people inside could have been crushed by the bikes or furniture they were travelling with during the journeys.

Judge Prince added: ‘That is apart from the obvious risk to citizens of this country when persons seek to introduce into the population persons who have not been scrutinised by the authorities at border control.’

Prosecutor Alex Leach KC told the court: ‘Mohammed Zada occupied the leading role in the conspiracies. He recruited, resourced and directed the activities of others.

‘During the period he devoted a very considerable period of his time to developing multiple different techniques for the smuggling of migrants.

‘Mohammed Zada’s offending was persistent, despite the repeated intervention of law enforcement. He used a variety of different forms of cover to conceal his criminality, including the use of multiple mobile telephones, legitimate businesses and the presence of children.

‘He attempted to transport highly vulnerable migrants, including very young children, in extremely dangerous circumstances, like a refrigerated vehicle.

‘His actions were in expectation of very substantial financial gain, as evidenced by the transportation of a large number of migrants, not known to him personally and in circumstances that engaged significant overhead costs.’

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 at 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.

In the days that followed, Zada and his lieutenants 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 law enforcement officers – twice in France and once in Belgium.

The crime group also duped drivers to unwittingly smuggle migrants by tasking them to transport legitimate commodities from the UK to mainland Europe. People were then loaded into vehicles without the driver’s knowledge.

Zada is believed to have successfully brought hundreds of migrants into the UK illegally prior to these attempts.

National Crime Agency officers recorded video footage of Zada examining the campervan hired by his co-conspirator Gurprit Kahlon to transport the migrants from France.

Zada and other leading members of the smuggling network were arrested in a major strike across north east 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, Zada was found guilty of five counts of conspiring to facilitate breaches of immigration law.

Sochanic, of Leyburn Street, Hartlepool, Mahmud, of Magdalene Evans Court, Kings Ave, Lambeth, London and Abdullah, of Allensway, Thornaby, Teesside, were found guilty on one count of the same charge.

Khalon, of Stainton Grange, Stainton Way, Stainton and Moslih, of Tulip Close, Stockton-on-Tees both pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to facilitate breaches of immigration law at earlier court hearings.

Defence barristers said the offences are now some years old and the defendants have family and work responsibilities.