Gang jailed for smuggling migrants into city port
‘Vulnerable’ migrants were exploited by a gang of men who transported them through Portsmouth in a lorry, a court has been told.
Six people smugglers have been jailed for a total of 26 years after immigrants were ferried across the English Channel and into the country through Portsmouth International Port.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) believe the alleged ringleader and another gang member are still at large.
NCA Branch Commander Richard Harrison said: ‘People smugglers risk lives, which is why targeting them is a priority for the NCA and we are doing all we can to disrupt and dismantle the criminal networks involved. ‘The men convicted and sentenced put profit ahead of people. They were happy to put vulnerable migrants into the backs of lorries for long
Channel sea crossings, and I’m delighted they are now behind bars.’
Goran Jalal, 37, of Bradford, is suspected of organising the missions. Hemin Ali Salih, 37, of Manchester, is wanted by the NCA after he was convicted of attempting to use Jalal’s underground network to smuggle a relative to Britain.
NCA officers are issuing appeals for the whereabouts of Jalal and Salih.
Lorry driver Marinel Danut Palage, 31 – a Romanian national who lived in Spain – used his truck to transport migrants from France to Portsmouth. Kamaran Kader, 44, of Bradford, and Pshtewan Ghafour, 37, of Middlesbrough, worked with Jalal and Palage to organise the migrant crossings.
The gang were arrested in 2019 after surveillance officers followed them to a handover meeting on an industrial estate in West Sussex.
Salih was found guilty of facilitating illegal immigration in his absence. He absconded before the trial started, but was sentenced to two years in prison with a warrant issued for his arrest.
Palage and Ghafour were found guilty of conspiring to facilitate illegal immigration on March 14 following a four week trial. The pair were sentenced to nine and five years in prison respectively.
Kader pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing of conspiring to facilitate illegal immigration and was sentenced to four years and 6 months in jail on April 20.