Iranian Kurdish People Smuggler Jailed for 17 Years in UK

[Anthea]

Kurdish Smuggler Jailed for 17 Years in UK

A Kurdish man known as the “best smuggler,” who promoted small boat Channel crossings on Facebook, has been sentenced to 17 years in prison in the UK

Amanj Hasan Zada, from Lancashire, was linked to three separate crossings from France in 2023, which involved Kurdish migrants who had previously traveled through Eastern Europe.

Following a two-week trial at Preston Crown Court, the 34-year-old Iranian national was found guilty on three counts of facilitating illegal immigration.

Martin Clarke, a representative from the National Crime Agency (NCA), stated there was “no doubt… [Zada] was likely to have been involved in many more” illegal crossings.

Clarke described Zada’s operation as “a sophisticated enterprise,” emphasizing that “for him it was all about profit.” Clarke added that Zada “had no issues with putting people in life-threatening situations as long as he got paid.”

“People smugglers like him risk lives, which is why we are determined to do all we can to stop them, wherever they operate,” said Clarke.

The NCA currently has around 70 ongoing investigations into top-level networks or individuals involved in organized immigration crime or human trafficking.

Zada, known to the migrants he tried to smuggle as Amanj Zaman, occasionally shared videos of people he had previously helped, according to the NCA.

One video featured a group of men on a boat to Italy expressing their gratitude to him. Another video, believed to have been recorded in Iraq in 2021, showed Zada at a party with musicians singing in Kurdish, praising him as “the best smuggler” and saying “all the other smugglers have learned from him,” as he threw cash and fired a gun into the air in celebration.

In the UK, NCA officers were able to record conversations between Zada and other smugglers, discussing the movements of migrants, locations, and successful crossings.

Zada was eventually arrested in May, and his phone was seized.

Analysis of the device linked it to multiple social media accounts and phone numbers used to promote his services, and showed he had direct contact with some of the migrants who arrived in the UK in 2023.

https://www.basnews.com/en/babat/865917