Man jailed for smuggling people

One of the ringleaders of a gang that carried out one of Europe's largest people smuggling rackets estimated to be worth millions of pounds and to have involved thousands of people was jailed in London yesterday.

The gang shipped the predominantly Turkish and Kurdish illegal immigrants, including children, into Britain from mainland Europe in dangerously cramped containers and lorries during journeys that sometimes took months.

Ramazan Zorlu, 43, was jailed for eight-and-a-half years at Croydon Crown Court in south London after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit unlawful immigration into the UK.

"You must have considered these people (the illegal immigrants) merely as commodities rather than people to be cared for," Judge Nicholas Ainley told him.

Two of the gang's other leaders, Ali Riza Gun and Hassan Eroglu, who was imprisoned for six years, have also admitted running the crime ring, while seven other men have pleaded guilty in Britain to being involved.

"This is the most significant human smuggling ring ever investigated and prosecuted in the UK," Detective Chief Superintendent Maxine De Brunner told reporters, saying the gang had thought themselves "untouchable".

"It was these 10 defendants... who operated in the upper tier of this criminal network."

Police said in total there had been more than 60 arrests across Europe leading to prison sentences totalling more than 160 years after the racket was smashed last October following a two-year investigation by London police.

In all, it involved 30 investigations across the UK and 21 European countries.

Police said the probe had identified 414 illegal immigrants who the gang had tried to smuggle into Britain - 134 were stopped in Belgium, 197 in Austria, eight in the Netherlands, 25 in France, and three in Denmark.

A further 500 others were detected by Belgium police as part of an ongoing investigation there.

Migrants using the system were charged up to £14,000 to be smuggled into the UK.

Worldwide the human smuggling business is worth £8 billion, and Ms De Brunner said the amount the immigrants they had detected would have paid would be £5 million.

Prosecutors said in the worst case, French police had stopped a rented van in the northern port of Cherbourg with 21 immigrants including four children on board.

He said they were in a "deplorable" condition, suffocating and suffering from dehydration.

In another case officers had discovered an eight-month pregnant woman.

"This gang cared little for their cargos," Hilary Bradfield of the UK Crown Prosecution Service.

"They were subjected to some appalling conditions including being without food for several days, transported in coffin-like compartments under lorries."