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UK: People smuggler jailed for 8 years
5.10.2006 |
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LONDON, October
4, -- One of the ringleaders of a gang that carried
out one of Europe's largest people smuggling rackets
estimated to be worth millions of pounds and to have
involved thousands of people was jailed in London on
Wednesday.
The gang shipped the predominantly Turkish and
Kurdish illegal immigrants, including children, into
Britain from mainland Europe in dangerously cramped
containers and lorries during journeys that
sometimes took months.
Raman Zorro, 43, was jailed for eight-and-a-half
years at Croydon Crown Court in south London after
he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit unlawful
immigration into the country.
"You must have considered these people (the illegal
immigrants) merely as commodities rather than people
to be cared for," Judge Nicholas Mainly told him.
Two of the gang's other leaders, Ali Rise Gun and
Hassan Regale, who was imprisoned for six years,
have also admitted running the crime ring, while
seven other men have pleaded guilty in Britain to
being involved. |
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"This is the most significant human smuggling ring
ever investigated and prosecuted in the UK,"
Detective Chief Superintendent Maxine De Burner told
reporters, saying the gang had thought themselves
"untouchable".
"It was these 10 defendants ... who operated in the
upper tier of this criminal network."
Police said in total there had been more than 60
arrests across Europe leading to prison sentences
totalling more than 160 years after the racket was
smashed last October following a two-year
investigation by London police.
In all, it involved 30 investigations across the
country and 21 European countries.
Police said the probe had identified 414 illegal
immigrants who the gang had tried to smuggle into
Britain -- 134 were stopped in Belgium, 197 in
Austria, 8 in the Netherlands, 25 in France, and
three in Denmark.
A further 500 others were detected by Belgium police
as part of an ongoing investigation there.
Migrants using the system were charged up to 14,000
pounds to be smuggled into the UK.
Worldwide the human smuggling business is worth 8
billion pounds, and De Brunner said the amount the
immigrants they had detected would have paid would
be 5 million pounds.
Prosecutors said in the worst case, French police
had stopped a rented van in the northern port of
Cherbourg with 21 immigrants including 4 children on
board.
He said they were in a "deplorable" condition,
suffocating and suffering from dehydration. In
another case officers had discovered a eight-month
pregnant woman.
"This gang cared little for their cargos," Hilary
Bradfield of the Crown Prosecution Service.
"They were subjected to some appalling conditions
including being without food for several days,
transported in coffin-like compartments under
lorries."
Reuters
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