Glasgow driver held as migrants found in lorry

A GLASGOW pupil was on song to clinch first place in a prestigious singing event.

Landi Weng was named in top spot in one of the singing classes (age 11/12) at the Edinburgh Competition Festival.

The annual festival for amateur musicians is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year.

AGLASGOW lorry driver has been arrested after 10 migrants were discovered in the back of his vehicle.

The 64-year-old is one of four men held as part of a National Crime Agency (NCA) probe into a crime group suspected of transporting migrants from the continent into the UK on the back of lorries.

It comes after the discovery of 10 migrants in a lorry carrying a load of tyres near Ghent in Belgium on Thursday.

The migrants, believed to be two adults and eight youths, are thought to be from south-east Asia.

The Belgian authorities, acting on information from the NCA, arrested the driver.

NCA officers then arrested three further men. Two Irish nationals, aged 39 and 48, were arrested in Dover on suspicion of facilitating illegal immigration.

A 30-year-old man was subsequently arrested in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, yesterday.

All three are now in custody being questioned by NCA investigators, while officers have also carried out searches at properties in Northern Ireland and Kent.

At an address in Kent two suspected firearms were seized.

NCA regional head of investigation Gerry McLean said: “Our close working with our Belgian partners in this instance has led to the safeguarding of a number of migrants who had been put in a very dangerous situation, and we are grateful for their support.

“We have seen only recently in Essex the tragic consequences which these types of attempts can have. Working with partners at home and abroad, we are determined to do all we can to disrupt and dismantle criminal networks involved in illegal immigration, and our investigation into this matter continues.”

West Flanders prosecutor Frank Demeester added: “This kind of human smuggling is very dangerous, and this operation proves once more that international co-operation works in the fight against this type of organised crime.

“The contacts between the British NCA and Belgian Federal Judicial Police, maritime police and prosecutors have become more intense in recent years.

“In the fight against human smuggling, the UK is obviously an important partner as being the country of destination.”