Police knew of lorry smuggling gang
Smugglers found guilty of manslaughter over lorry tragedy had been reported to authorities before
People smugglers yesterday convicted in connection with the deaths of 39 Vietnamese migrants were known to British and French authorities. Police and immigration officials are facing questions after it emerged the gang’s activities had been on their radar for more than a year. Ronan Hughes and Maurice Robinson had already pleaded guilty to manslaughter, and Gheorghe Nica, Christopher Kennedy, Valentin Calota and Eamonn Harrison have now also been convicted.
A PEOPLE smuggling gang, who were yesterday convicted in connection with the deaths of 39 Vietnamese migrants, had come to the attention of the British and French authorities on numerous occasions before the tragedy, it can now be revealed.
Eight men, including four found guilty of manslaughter, now face lengthy sentences for their part in the multi-million pound trafficking of illegal migrants into the UK.
But police and immigration officials on both sides of the Channel are facing questions after it emerged that the gang’s activities had been on their radar for more than a year.
In 2018, lorry driver Eamonn Harrison was caught in northern France with 18 Vietnamese migrants hidden in his
trailer. However, the French authorities issued him with a fine and allowed him to continue on his way. It is not thought his details were passed to UK officials and he has never paid the fine.
In the weeks before the tragedy, residents in the village of Orsett in Essex reported that a farm was a “hotbed of dodgy activity”. Marie Andrews, a resident, accused the police of “not listening” and described how on Oct 11 2019, less than two weeks before the tragedy, she rang police three times to tell them she had seen migrants jumping out of a lorry and getting into a fleet of cars.
Det Chief Supt Stuart Hooper insisted Essex Police had acted “proportionately and in good faith” and had followed up the reports. He said by the time the calls had been made, the vehicles had left the area and when they examined CCTV footage and Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras, they were unable to identify the cars or lorry involved.
There were also other missed opportunities to catch the gang in the act, including on Oct 14, when another driver, Christopher Kennedy, was caught with 20 Vietnamese nationals in his trailer on the French side of the Channel Tunnel.
The migrants were taken away by French border forces, but Kennedy was allowed to continue on his way to Kent.
At least two of the 39 victims were thought to be among those previously found in Kennedy’s container.
Most of the migrants who died had travelled from Vietnam into mainland Europe, via Russia or former Eastern bloc countries, usually applying for Schengen visas. Having made contact with the gang they agreed to pay around £12,000 for a VIP service that would deliver them illegally into the UK. It is thought that, once there, they intended to work on the black market in cannabis factories, nail bars and restaurants.
The investigation into the deaths amounted to the biggest case in Essex Police’s 180-year history and involved work by more than 1,300 people.
Two men, haulage boss Ronan Hughes, 41, from Armagh, and driver Maurice Robinson, 26, from Craigavon, had already pleaded guilty to manslaughter and yesterday, following a 10-week trial, the Romanian ringleader Gheorghe Nica, 43, and driver Eamonn Harrison, 24, were also convicted.
They were also convicted of their part in the people-smuggling operation, along with Kennedy and Valentin Calota, from Birmingham.
The trial heard how the migrants, aged between 15 and 44, suffocated as the airtight container was shipped from Zeebrugge to Purfleet. They had each paid around £12,000 to be smuggled into Britain by the gang who were earning around £1 million a month.
The gang had crammed twice the usual number of migrants into the lorry in order to maximise profits after Kennedy’s previous shipment was stopped.
The verdicts bring the number convicted in Britain to eight, including Alexandru-ovidiu Hanga, 28, from Tilbury, and Gazmir Nuzi, 43, from north London, who admitted assisting unlawful immigration linked to the case.