London, February 12 A 51-year-old man of South Asian descent, suspected of being the mastermind behind a people smuggling operation involving illegal migrants from India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, appeared before the Birmingham Magistrates Court on Thursday.
The UK's National Crime Agency (NCA) said Zahid Khan was arrested in Birmingham on Tuesday by officers as part of a joint investigation with the West Midlands Police.
After being questioned by NCA investigators, Khan was charged with facilitating illegal immigration and money laundering offences.
A second man, aged 44, arrested at the same time and location on suspicion of facilitating illegal immigration, has been released on bail pending further inquiries.
"These arrests were made as part of an ongoing investigation into a people smuggling network suspected of using heavy goods vehicles [HGV] to transport migrants in both directions across the English Channel," said Paul Jones, NCA Branch Operations Manager.
"This activity poses a risk to the safety of those being transported, and also presents a threat to our border security. Targeting, disrupting, and dismantling gangs involved in organized immigration crime remains a priority for the NCA and our partners," he said.
The joint NCA and West Midlands Police investigation focused on a suspected criminal network involved in smuggling migrants both into and out of the UK in the back of lorries.
"The operation followed the interception of a lorry carrying 33 migrants of Indian, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi nationality, stopped by the NCA in Dover on February 4. The lorry was about to leave the UK on a ferry to France, and the driver was arrested," the NCA said.
Dover is a major ferry port in Kent, on the south-eastern coast of England and at the frontline of illegal migrant crossings across the English Channel from Calais in France.
The second man arrested in connection with the NCA's latest people smuggling crackdown will remain in custody despite his bail, as he is wanted for failing to appear at court in relation to separate, unconnected offences.
