Home OfficeSeven members of a people smuggling gang who hid migrants behind vehicle dashboards have been jailed.
The group, which also used a forgery factory in Greece to alter identity documents, brought people to the United Kingdom either by plane or road.
UK Border Force officers found a Vietnamese woman “dangerously concealed inside a cramped compartment” behind a dashboard in a vehicle heading to England from France in June 2022, the Home Office said.
The gang’s ringleader, Mukhlis Jamal Hamadamin, was sentenced at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court to 13 years in prison for offences including conspiring to assist unlawful immigration and possessing an identity document with improper intention.
The driver of the vehicle in which the woman was found, Jozef Balog, pleaded guilty to assisting unlawful immigration.
A month after the first woman was discovered, Border Force officers stopped the gang trying to smuggle another vulnerable woman in a secret compartment behind the dashboard of their vehicle.
At a hearing in October, Emily Etherington pleaded guilty to facilitating illegal entry into the UK. She was sentenced to two years in prison, suspended for two years.
Her partner, Redar Curtis, admitted the same offence following a trial and was jailed for four years and six months.
Home OfficeThe Home Office launched a wider international investigation which led to the arrest of five other gang members across the UK.
Mukhlis Jamal Hamadamin was arrested at Manchester Airport in November 2023.
When searched, his phone contained images of passports and boarding passes, along with messages between the gang about the creation and distribution of false documents.
His younger brother, Muhamad Jamal Hamadamin, has also been jailed.
Officials also found counterfeit documents, more than 20,000 illicit cigarettes and £6,000 in cash.
An investigation is under way to recover the gang’s illegal profits.
“This gang put profit over lives, cramming people into sophisticated hides and planning dangerous border crossings for the most vulnerable,” said Phillip Parr, who leads the immigration enforcement, criminal and financial investigations team.
Border Security and Asylum Minister Dame Angela Eagle said: “The unlawful activities of this gang is an example of the lengths people smugglers will go to for profit.
“Their ruthless disregard for human safety is sickening and shocking.”
Home OfficeThe eight gang members were:
- Mukhlis Jamal Hamadamin, 43, of Brook Road in Stockport, was jailed for 13 years
- Muhamad Jamal Hamadamin, 28, of Brook Road in Stockport, was jailed for 18 months
- Yassen Jalal Mohammed, 44, of Woodhouse Grove in Huddersfield, was sentenced to three years and two months in prison
- Dlawar Omar, 40, of Pendrill Street in Hull, was sentenced to three years and one month
- Emily Etherington, 38, of Guernsey Way in Ashford, Kent, was sentenced to two years in prison, suspended for two years
- Redar Curtis, 30, of Guernsey Way in Kennington, London, was jailed for four years and six months
- Jozef Kadet, 26, of Constable Street, Manchester, was sentenced to four years and two months in prison
- Khales Akram Jabar, 44, of Barnaby Avenue, Middlesbrough, was jailed for two years
