HOMES in the North-East were raided yesterday by police hoping to smash an international ring to smuggle illegal immigrants into the UK.

Three ringleaders were arrested during coordinated raids on Tyneside and in Germany, where 21 Indian immigrants were detained by immigration authorities in the back of a lorry.

The operation, codenamed Zephaniah, was carried out by officers from the National Crime Squad, German police and HM Customs, who also seized bootleg alcohol, cigarettes and false passports.

A 35-year-old man, who police believe was at the heart of the conspiracy, was arrested during a series of raids on homes and commercial premises in the Bill Quay area of Gateshead last night.

At 3.45pm yesterday, a 40-tonne articulated lorry was stopped by the German Border Police, who were accompanied by officers from the National Crime Squad, at Essen, in the Rhine and Ruhr area of Germany.

On searching the lorry, they found 21 people hidden among its legitimate load of exhibition equipment.

Officers believe those arrested in Germany are part of a conspiracy operating throughout Europe to smuggle people from northern India into the UK.

Operation Zephaniah was the result of a long-term investigation that experienced significant developments during October.

Detective Chief Inspector Alan Williams, operational commander for the National Crime Squad, said: "I am delighted with today's result, which is a culmination of many months of hard work.

"Many of the people we found in the back of the lorry would have already travelled across mainland Europe illegally for up to about six months in order to get this far.

"It is quite distressing to see the conditions they would have travelled in, with very little or no sanitation and just the clothes they are stood up in - all of this in a desperate attempt to reach the UK.

"I believe these people are victims of crime as they will have paid huge sums of money to enable them to get out of the country, sometimes in the region of £6,000 to £10,000.

"This is a miserable trade in human suffering for which they and their families get caught up in spiralling debts in order to pay for their passage.