Smuggling ring exposed by the National Crime Agency
A Romanian man has been locked up for six years after playing a key role in a people-smuggling gang. Nicusor Lacatus, 53, helped recruit lorry drivers to ferry migrants illegally across the UK-France border.
Driver caught red-handed with 22 migrants at Dover
One of Lacatus’s recruits was caught trying to sneak 22 migrants in the back of his lorry at Dover last September. The driver, fellow Romanian Iosif Sebastian Haprian, 40, was arrested with £3,600 cash in his cab – payment for the smuggling run.
Phone records later revealed contact between Haprian and Lacatus before the border attempt. Haprian was jailed for three years in December for people smuggling offences.
Lacatus was arrested as he tried to flee the country
The NCA swooped on Lacatus at a service station on the M20 in November as he was about to leave the UK in his van. At Canterbury Crown Court on 27 March, Lacatus admitted facilitating illegal immigration and was handed a six-year prison sentence.
