Suspected people smuggling network boss, arrested in Oldham, released on bail

Picture courtesy of National Crime Agency

Three men arrested by the National Crime Agency as part of an operation targeting an alleged international people smuggling network have been released on bail pending further enquiries.

The arrests, in Manchester, Oldham and Stoke-on-Trent, were made yesterday, April 5.

After being questioned the trio, aged 41, 38 and 35, have been bailed for 28 days.

The operation followed arrests made last month in Germany and Romania, and were part of an investigation into a network believed to have been operating between Iraq and the UK.

The 41-year-old man believed to be the head of the network had been arrested at his home in Oldham, where officers seized £15,500 in cash.

A 38-year-old man was arrested in Stoke-on-Trent and a 35-year-old man was arrested in the Newton Heath area of Manchester.

At the Newton Heath property another man, aged 25, was arrested by Immigration Enforcement on suspicion of illegally entering the UK.

The arrests, for suspected immigration offences, coincided with the arrests of two men in the Ghent area of Belgium following several months of joint operational work between the NCA and Belgian Federal Police.

In the Belgian action, a 15-year-old boy was rescued before he boarded a lorry bound for the UK.

The operation has been coordinated by Europol and Eurojust.

The suspects, all from or with links to the Kurdish community, are believed to be part of a network of smugglers, couriers and complicit lorry drivers stretching from Iraq to the UK.

The NCA believes the network are behind the smuggling of almost three thousand migrants into Europe in a three-month period last year. Many were trying to reach the UK.

Business premises in Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Stoke-on-Trent were inspected during the UK operation, which involved officers from Greater Manchester Police and Staffordshire Police, Immigration Enforcement and HMRC.

More than 500,000 cigarettes and 75kgs of hand-rolling tobacco were discovered during searches.