Two men have pleaded guilty to charges related to a human smuggling operation investigators have compared to a "travel agency."
Dilshad Shamo and Ali Khdir operated a human smuggling ring out of a car wash in Caerphilly, south Wales, where they offered Middle Eastern migrants various illegal routes into Europe, complete with tiered "packages" and video reviews from past clients.
They also used messaging and social media apps to provide videos from people who had already taken the journey so they could advertise their routes. pic.twitter.com/BiQ9SWmxk1
— National Crime Agency (NCA) (@NCA_UK) November 22, 2024
The National Crime Agency (NCA) revealed that Shamo and Khdir smuggled approximately 100 migrants per week over two years, BBC reported. Migrants could choose from bronze, silver, gold, or platinum packages, priced according to risk and comfort. The most expensive option, platinum, costing £10,000–£25,000, provided air travel with fake passports. The cheapest, bronze, involved hiding in the back of trucks for £3,000–£5,000.
Videos found on the smugglers' phones, seemingly used for promotion, showed migrants rating their journeys, some smiling and giving thumbs-up from trucks or boats.
"Lorry route agreement with knowledge of the driver; here we have men, women and children - thank God the route was easy and good," a man shared in one video.
"It's like Tripadvisor, they were rating their service within that community," NCA official Derek Evans told BBC.
Shamo and Khdir earned millions using the informal hawala banking system, making the profits nearly impossible to trace. Hawala, while legitimate in many cases, is exploited by smugglers to move funds without formal identification requirements.
Despite the arrests, Evans warned the business model's profitability meant other smugglers would likely step in.
"I think a lot of countries are struggling in their responses because they really don't understand the system," Dr. Claire Healy from the UN's Office on Drugs and Crime said. "Very often it's simply the person driving a boat or driving a car who gets arrested... these are actors who are very easily replaceable."
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