A "prolific criminal network" operating out of Middlesbrough has been shut down after managing to smuggle hundreds of migrants into the UK illegally. 

Key members of the Teesside-based network, including its figurehead, 43-year-old Muhammad Zada, were found guilty by a jury on 11 July following a six-week trial.

Zada, from Middlesbrough, coordinated at least five conspiracies to smuggle Iraqi-Kurdish migrants into the UK from mainland Europe in 2017.

His associates, Pareiz Abdullah, 41, Khalid Mahmud, 50, Marek Sochanic, 39, Gurprit Kahlon, 67, and Bestoon Moslih, 41, were responsible for recruiting drivers and moving people into the country in the back of lorries. 

Unfortuantely, 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.

(Image: NCA)

The migrants were charged between £5,000 and £10,000 by the crime group to be 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 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.

Criminal lynchpin 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. 

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 between 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.

Footage captured by NCA officers shows 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 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 20 September.

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.

Most read: 

Get the latest news, sports, and entertainment delivered straight to your device by subscribing to The Northern Echo here. 

“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.”