The ringleader of a people-smuggling gang made £1million sneaking hundreds of migrants into Britain and helping fugitive sex offenders and killers flee the country. Mohammed Mokter Hossain, 54, was described as an "illegal travel agent" as he arranged for hundreds of people to be shipped in and out of the UK.
He used a network of lorry drivers who he paid to hide people moving in both directions across the Channel, usually via the Dover to Calais route. Some of the passengers were fugitives trying to escape justice in the UK, as they were wanted by police for serious crimes such as child abuse and murder.
Investigators believe Hossain, from Woodford Green, east London, could have made more than £1million from the operation between December 2018 and May 2021. Hossain, who was also known as 'Md', co-ordinated the movements of drivers and arranged for taxis to drop off migrants at their pick-up locations.
He even used a ledger detailing the hundreds of men, women and children who had used his 'services' and the amounts he charged - which ranged from up to £15,000 to enter to just £1,000 to leave, due to the lower risk. When his home was raided by police they found a document outlining terms and conditions for those who wanted to be transported, including offering refunds if they were caught.
Using surveillance and officers going undercover, the gang was taken down when members tried to break into a lorry at South Mimms service station on the M25 in Hertfordshire in a bid to stash people inside in March 2021. During Operation Symbolry police found nearly 200 phone calls and messages between Hossain and his right-hand man Noor Ullah, 30.
National Crime Agency investigators arrested the pair two months later and raided a safe house in Bethnal Green, east London, that was used as a place for smuggled migrants to stay. The property had been converted from a small terrace house to accommodate at least 19 people, with bunk beds filling every room.
Eight men who were in the UK illegally were found staying there at the time and were handed to the Border Force. Hossain was jailed for 10-and-a-half years at Snaresbrook Crown Court on Friday.
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Following his arrest, Hossain admitted conspiring with Ullah to move people into and out of the UK, but denied being head of the crime gang. But this was rejected by Judge Sandy Canavan, who described his story as a “tissue of lies” and told him that “you have lied time and time again. Dishonesty, greed and wickedness have led you to where you are today”.
Chris Hill, NCA senior investigating officer, said on Monday: “Our investigation has successfully dismantled the UK arm of this people smuggling network from top to bottom, including the organisers, middle-men and the lorry drivers being used. We believe they smuggled hundreds of people into and out of the UK, including fugitives wanted for murder and child abuse offences.
“People smugglers don’t care about safety or border security – they just see people as a commodity to be profited from. This can have fatal consequences, which is why tackling it is such a priority for the NCA.”
Another seven suspects, including five lorry drivers, have already been convicted of people-smuggling. The drivers were convicted after their trucks were intercepted by the NCA and migrants were found inside.
Ullah initially denied the charges against him, but on the first day of his trial pleaded guilty to conspiring to smuggle people out of the UK between September 2020 and May 2021 and was sentenced to two years and five months in prison. Romanian national Marius Halmaghe was one of the drivers arrested. He was stopped on the A2 in Kent on October 1, 2020, with four migrants in his HGV and was jailed for 31 months.
Three days later, Alexandru Fuiorea, a Romanian who had been living in Luton, Bedfordshire, was arrested on the M2 heading towards Dover and found with 18 migrants hidden in the back of his truck. Fuiorea was sentenced to three years and eight-months.
Mihai-Veleriu Postolache and his partner Roxana Gabriela Stan, both Romanian, were arrested by the NCA after five migrants were discovered in their HGV as it entered the port of Dover on November 6, 2020. They were later sentenced to 33 months and 14 months respectively.
Sebastian Gabriel Podar, from Tuzrii in Romania, was arrested as part of NCA operation in Dover in December 2020, when nine migrants were discovered in the rear of his HGV that was booked to go on a ferry to France. Among them was a man wanted for child sexual offences by Nottinghamshire Police, the NCA said.
Podar had previously been stopped in London with six migrants found inside his vehicle. He admitted two counts of attempting to facilitate a breach of immigration law, and on May 19, 2021, he was sentenced to six years in prison.
Turkish lorry driver Hakan Zengin was arrested on March 21, 2021, on the M25 with 17 migrants in his lorry. As a result he pleaded guilty to immigration offences and was sentenced to two-and-a-half years behind bars.
Another five licensed minicab drivers have been arrested and charged for their alleged roles in transporting migrants to or from lorry pick-up and drop-off points. They are due to stand trial in January next year, the NCA said.
Along with the NCA, police forces in London, Kent, Surrey, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Essex all took part in the operation. Anyone with information about people smuggling, particularly lorry drivers who have been approached by organised crooks, can contact police on 101 or the charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.
