A criminal organization comprised of five individuals has been convicted for their involvement in smuggling migrants into the UK using a refrigerated truck via Portsmouth port. The group’s illicit activities were exposed after a four-year probe conducted by the National Crime Agency (NCA), which included a surveillance operation that lead to the suspects’ arrest.
On 11 March 2019, NCA agents observed the criminals driving their VW Touran to meet a lorry operated by Marinel Danut Palage, a 31-year-old Romanian, at a Runcton industrial estate in West Sussex. The vehicle had arrived at Portsmouth from Caen, France, the previous evening, and was transporting a legitimate shipment of spinach from Spain, along with at least three individuals who had been smuggled into the UK.
