Three arrested in Iraq over alleged UK people smuggling links

[Pelican Press 0]

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Three arrested in Iraq over alleged *** people smuggling links

Three people have been arrested in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region for their alleged role in a global people smuggling network that moved migrants from the area to the *** and Europe.

The group of detained men are alleged to have links to the same network as Amanj Hasan Zada, a ***-based people smuggler who was

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All three men are in custody and will be prosecuted for human trafficking offences by the authorities in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI), the National Crime Agency (NCA) said.

In the first operation of its kind, NCA officers were deployed to assist the region’s Security Council and Security Agency with the arrests.

One of those detained was a 38-year-old man accused of working with the smuggling network to coordinate the transportation of migrants into Greece or Italy using over a dozen yachts.

Each boat contained 60 or 70 people, who would then be moved on to northern Europe or the ***, the NCA said.

The second man, a Hawala banker aged in his 40s, is accused of processing financial transactions on behalf of Zada.

A third man in his 30s was detained over accusations he served as a middle-man for the group, gathering migrants for movement by the network previously linked to Zada.

All three men were from the city of Sulaymaniyah, and were arrested between 8 January and 12 January.

Zada, from Preston in Lancashire, was linked to three separate crossings from France in 2023 involving Kurdish migrants who had travelled through eastern Europe.

The 34-year-old Iranian national was convicted on three counts of facilitating ******** immigration and jailed for 17 years in November.

According to the NCA, Zada used social media to advertise his services, sometimes posting videos of those he had successfully smuggled thanking him for his help.

Another video posted to

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, thought to have been recorded in Iraq in 2021, showed Zada at a party where he was celebrated as “the best smuggler” in a song performed by Kurdish musicians.

NCA branch commander Martin Clarke, who was among those who were deployed to KRI, said people smuggling gangs were “risking the lives of those they transport, feeding them lies via their social media channels, and claiming journeys are one hundred per cent safe”.

He added: “More than 70 people lost their lives attempting to cross the Channel in small boats in 2024, so this trade must stop.”

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