People smuggling gang dismantled as head of Teesside-based crime group gets 20-year jail term

The figurehead of an organised crime group that attempted to smuggle migrants into the UK has been jailed for 20 years following a major National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation.

Muhammad Zada, 43, from Middlesbrough, and his five associates were found guilty in July of transporting people in vans and a refrigerated lorry after a six-week trial.

Pareiz Abdullah, 41, Khalid Mahmud, 50, Marek Sochanic, 40, Gurprit Khalon, 67, and Bestoon Moslih, 41, held key roles within the people smuggling network.

They were responsible for recruiting drivers and facilitating the movement of people into the country from mainland Europe.

Zada coordinated at least five conspiracies to smuggle 35 Iraqi-Kurdish and Vietnamese refugees into the UK from France, Belgium and the Netherlands in 2017.

NCA investigators believe he is likely to have successfully smuggled hundreds of people into the UK illegally prior to these attempts.

Each person was charged between £5,000 and £10,000 by the crime group to be hidden in vehicles and brought to the UK.

The first arrest was made in March 2017, when Milan Sochanic – Marek Sochanic’s father – drove a van from the UK to Belgium on two occasions to collect and transport people.

He was stopped by French police at Calais on his second trip and eight people were discovered hidden among furniture in the van.

Milan Sochanic was convicted of people smuggling offences in France.

Zada had purchased the van and arranged for ‘Milan Builders’ to be painted on the side before plotting the journeys with the help of Marek Sochanic.

On another occasion, the crime group organised for victims to be smuggled from France and the Netherlands to the UK in a refrigerated lorry trailer containing fruit and vegetables.

The return journey from Rotterdam was foiled by Dutch police who located 12 Vietnamese people, including children as young as four years old, due to be loaded into the lorry.

In the days that followed, Zada and his lieutenants arranged for people to be hidden inside a campervan, as well as in vans among bicycle boxes and a shipment of mattresses.

On all three occasions the journeys were intercepted by law enforcement officers – twice in France and once in Belgium.

Footage captured by NCA officers monitoring Zada’s movements showed him examining the campervan hired by his co-conspirator Gurprit Khalon to transport the victims from France.

The crime group were also found to have duped drivers by tasking them to transport legitimate commodities from mainland Europe to the UK. People were then loaded into vehicles without the drivers knowing.

Leading members of the crime group were arrested during a major law enforcement operation across north east England in February 2018.

The operation comprised around 350 officers from the NCA and its partners, including the North East Regional Organised Crime Unit, as well as Cleveland, Durham and Northumbria police forces.

Zada was apprehended at his Wynyard property where his white Range Rover worth around £100k was parked on the driveway.

A separate investigation, led by HM Revenue and Customs, identified Zada as the leader of a gang that smuggled more than two million cigarettes into the UK hidden among a shipment of fridge freezers.

For his leading role in that crime syndicate he was sentenced to five-and-a-half years imprisonment in October 2018.

Muhammad Zada, Gurprit Khalon, Marek Sochanic and Pareiz were sentenced at Newcastle Crown Court today (20 September). Bestoon Moslih and Khalid Mahmud will be sentenced at a later date.

Zada was jailed for 20 years after being found guilty of five counts of conspiring to facilitate breaches of immigration law.

Sochanic and Abdullah were both jailed for six years – the pair were found guilty of one count of the same charge.

Khalon pleaded guilty to two counts and received seven years.

Zada and Sochanic were sentenced in their absence having absconded before the start of July’s trial. Work to locate the pair and bring them into custody is ongoing.

Martin Clarke, NCA Branch Commander, said: “Today’s outcome is the result of tireless efforts to dismantle people smuggling networks and ensure those treating people as commodities and putting lives at risk are put behind bars.

“The NCA alone has more than 70 ongoing investigations into networks or individuals operating at the top tier of this crime type, and working with our partners internationally and domestically, as seen in this case, is a key component of our work to tackle organised immigration crime and human trafficking.”

Arslan Khan, Unit Head of the Serious Economic Organised Crime and International Directorate in the CPS, said: “These men were happy to risk the lives and safety of others to make money.

“This was a complex operation involving collaboration across international borders. The CPS was able to present a comprehensive and compelling body of evidence in court.

“Some defendants pleaded guilty while others were found guilty after a long and protracted trial.

“We will now seek to pursue any money or assets they gained through their crimes through our Proceeds of Crime Division.”