Mini-cab drivers in trafficking racket

FIVE Bangladeshi mini-cab drivers from east London were charged with aiding a people smuggling network in UK, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said last Wednesday (28).

The men, all aged between 40 and 52, appeared before Barkingside magistrates court last Wednesday, charged with attempting to facilitate breaches of immigration law.

The gang was busted following an investigation by the NCA, codenamed Operation Symbolry, into a London-based organised crime group involved in smuggling migrants into and out of the UK using lorries.

According to the agency, the taxi drivers moved migrants to and from rendezvous points with heavy goods vehicles (HGV), which would then be used to smuggle them across the English channel. A number of the lorries were later intercepted by the NCA.

They were all bailed to appear before Snaresbrook crown court on October 26.

Five lorry drivers involved in the racket have already been convicted and jailed for a combined 17 years following Operation Symbolry.

The NCA said a high-ranking member of the network, Noor Ullah, from Church Lane, Leytonstone, was also sentenced to two-years and five months’ imprisonment in March 2022.

The alleged ringleader, Mohammed Mokter Hossain from Woodford Green, had earlier pleaded guilty to conspiring to move people into and out of the UK.