The leader of a Teesside-based organised crime group, Mohammed Kheder Zada, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison after a major National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation exposed his involvement in smuggling migrants into the UK. The 43-year-old from Middlesbrough was found guilty, alongside five associates, of coordinating dangerous people smuggling operations.
Zada, along with Pareiz Abdullah (41), Khalid Mahmud (50), Marek Sochanic (40), Gurprit Khalon (67), and Bestoon Moslih (41), were responsible for recruiting drivers and arranging for migrants to be illegally transported from mainland Europe into the UK. The group facilitated at least five conspiracies to smuggle 35 Iraqi-Kurdish and Vietnamese migrants in 2017, using vans, a refrigerated lorry, and other vehicles.
The crime group charged each migrant between £5,000 and £10,000 to be hidden in vehicles and smuggled across borders. Zada and his group used various methods, including hiding migrants among fruit, vegetables, and even bicycle boxes.
In March 2017, the group’s activities were first disrupted when French police stopped Milan Sochanic, the father of Marek Sochanic, at Calais, discovering eight migrants hidden in a van among furniture. Further attempts to smuggle people were foiled in France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, with Dutch police uncovering 12 Vietnamese migrants, including young children, hidden in a refrigerated lorry.
Leading members of the gang were arrested in a major law enforcement operation across northeast England in February 2018, involving 350 officers from the NCA, North East Regional Organised Crime Unit, and several police forces.
Zada was arrested at his Wynyard property, where a £100,000 Range Rover was parked outside. He had previously been sentenced to five-and-a-half years in October 2018 for leading a separate gang that smuggled over two million cigarettes into the UK.
Zada was convicted of five counts of conspiring to facilitate breaches of immigration law and received a 20-year sentence at Newcastle Crown Court. His associates received various sentences, including six years each for Sochanic and Abdullah, and seven years for Khalon, who pleaded guilty to two counts.
Zada and Sochanic were sentenced in absentia, having absconded before the trial. Authorities are continuing efforts to locate and bring them into custody.
NCA Branch Commander Martin Clarke praised the efforts that led to the conviction, stating, “Today’s outcome is the result of tireless efforts to dismantle people smuggling networks and ensure those treating people as commodities are put behind bars.”
The case is part of the NCA’s wider efforts to combat organised immigration crime, with more than 70 ongoing investigations into similar criminal activities.
Arslan Khan, Unit Head of the Serious Economic Organised Crime and International Directorate at the CPS, emphasised the danger posed by the crime group, saying, “These men were happy to risk the lives and safety of others to make money.” The CPS plans to pursue any money or assets gained by the criminals through its Proceeds of Crime Division.
Authorities hope the successful dismantling of the gang will serve as a deterrent for those involved in human trafficking and people smuggling.
