People smuggler tracked to Coventry after fleeing Belgium
An investigation by Belgian police, with the support of the NCA, found Mohammad had been involved with smuggling migrants to the UK from Belgium. The agency said he had collected migrants when they arrived and arranged for payments to be made back to other smugglers via the Hawala banking system.
Migrants locked in trailer
Hawala is an alternative and often informal system of organising money transfers.Investigators linked Mohammad to a number of attempts to bring migrants to the UK in refrigerated lorries through the port of Zeebrugge, the NCA added. It said in one case in October 2019, Belgian police rescued more than 20 Iraqi and Iranian migrants, including a number of children, who had been locked inside a trailer for more than three days. "Distressed, they were found after banging on the inside walls for help," the agency added. Despite having fled the country before he was sentenced, Mohammad was given a five-year jail term and €224,000 (£193,437) fine.
Gill Duggan, head of Europe at the NCA, said the agency would work to return Mohammed to Belgium, where he would serve his sentence, and ensure "justice was done". Mohammad had played "an important role" in smuggling migrants to the UK, during which he, and his co-conspirators, had "risked the lives" of those they transported, Ms Duggan said. It demonstrated the "callous nature" of people smuggling gangs who treated people as a "commodity to profit from", she added.
Follow BBC Coventry & Warwickshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
28 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
French police deploy their latest weapon in the fight against small boat smugglers... days after gendarmes began slashing dinghies with knives
French police are reportedly using jet skis to deploy nets in the sea to in an attempt to deter small boats crossing the English Channel. The new tactic comes just days after footage emerged of French officers using a knife to slash a dinghy packed with migrants before dragging the deflated vessel back to dry land. It is thought that dropping the nets in shallow water will jam the propeller of any small boats in the vicinity and bring them to a halt. The Sun reported that both this measure, and the move to puncture the boat on Friday, are trial methods in an attempt to crack down on the number of migrants reaching the UK. Emmanuel Macron will visit Sir Keir Starmer this coming week and the newspaper says the French President will outline these methods as a strategy to stop the small boats on Thursday. This will soon reportedly become routine for officers rather than being trialled - possibly signalling early success. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: 'Over the last few months, we have been working together on new ways to crackdown on the criminal gang operations, with the French now bringing in important new tactics to stop boats that are in the water. 'We need to stop at nothing to boost our border security.' Former Home Secretary Priti Patel first suggested the idea of using UK border guards on jet skis to physically stop migrant boats. She had wanted Border Force to mimic tactics used by the Greek Navy, which has physically pushed boats trying to cross the Aegean back into Turkish waters. The UK plan mooted in 2020 and 2021 saw officials learning how to redirect migrants back to French waters using high-powered armoured 'personal water craft '. But the pushback plan was cancelled in 2022 before a High Court legal challenge. The PCS union, which represents Border Force staff, had also threatened to strike. The latest methods to puncture the boats now implemented by French police - which were aired by the BBC - comes after the force previously said French law prevented them from interfering with boats more than 10 feet from the coast. That rule is in the process of being scrapped, but some officers appeared to be acting early, prompting anger from refugee charities. Number 10 hailed the actions of French cops on Friday as a 'significant moment' that could have 'a major impact' on smuggling gangs. Downing Street said the change in stance from French law enforcement was thanks to the Prime Minister's 'reset' in relations with Europe, as he has looked to heal the wounds caused by the Brexit years. A spokesman said: 'No government has been able to get this level of cooperation with the French. That is important. 'We are looking to see France change its maritime tactics, and that is down to the Prime Minister's efforts to reset our relationship across Europe.' Kate O'Neill, advocacy coordinator at Project Play, said: 'This is not a new tactic… it's something that has been happening for a long time in Calais and surrounding areas.' She also warned it was a 'dangerous' tactic as children were 'often in the middle of the boats'. Ms O'Neill added: 'The events taking place in the BBC coverage are not only upsetting to watch, but show clear evidence of police officers endangering a child.' She added: 'While talks are ongoing to allow the interception of boats in shallow water, it remains illegal at this time under maritime law and violates the obligations of the UK and France under international law – including the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. 'This footage highlights the danger involved in intercepting and slashing boats in the water, and we implore decision makers to consider the potentially fatal consequences of allowing this to take place even more frequently.' A total of 517 people crossed the Channel across eight boats yesterday - bringing the annual total to 21,117.
Daily Mail
36 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE EXPOSED: The boat migrant fixers all over Britain making a mockery of Starmer's claim to be smashing the gangs - including one we found on TikTok plying his shameful trade from a west London restaurant
To the hordes of passers-by, the neatly coiffed man taking a call outside a smart Middle-Eastern restaurant looks like any other proprietor taking care of business during a busy evening shift. Even the well-heeled clientele inside the establishment, in the heart of a wealthy London suburb, appear oblivious to the sinister dealings going on around them. For Pavel Vinto, 36, the boss of this swish Iraqi-Kurdish restaurant, helps 'hundreds' of migrants enter the UK illegally by laundering cash from his kebab house in Ealing, west London, for people traffickers in northern France. And he does so right under the noses of affluent locals – and the police. But today, rather than chatting to another lucrative customer, as he believes he is doing, the Iraqi money man is spilling his secrets to an undercover Mail on Sunday reporter. Shocking footage, filmed with a hidden camera inside Vinto's thriving diner, reveals how underground banking networks are syphoning hundreds of millions of pounds a year to facilitate record Channel crossings – while operating in plain sight on Britain's high streets. Sir Keir Starmer has made stopping the flow of money that facilitates people trafficking a key tenet of his vow to 'smash the gangs'. But The Mail on Sunday tracked down Vinto's enterprise with astonishing ease, begging the question as to how he has been able to operate so brazenly. Our undercover investigation also shines a light on the 'hawala' system, an untraceable means of money exchange favoured by smugglers and migrants that protects them from the authorities. The National Crime Agency (NCA) has said that hundreds of millions of pounds are being transferred to and from the UK using this method, with restaurants, car washes and even carpet stores acting as fronts. To unearth these secretive networks, the MoS first made contact with an Iraqi trafficker based in Dunkirk, who was advertising his services on TikTok. Our undercover reporter said he and four friends were travelling from Albania and were seeking passage to the UK. The smuggler, who gave his name as Asoo, told the reporter to go to Hotel de Bretagne outside Dunkirk train station – an area notorious for migrant gatherings – but that payment should be made beforehand to a contact in London. 'I give you a shop in London,' the smuggler said. 'You put the money there as a guarantee. When you get to the UK, I take the money. 'If you don't get to the UK, you go and take your money back. No problem. But if you have cash, no problem – pay me before you get in the boat. 'If you have money in Turkey, no problem. Afghanistan, Iraq, London – anywhere.' Our reporter said he had a friend in London who could make the payment there. The smuggler then sent an address for a Middle Eastern restaurant in Ealing, which we are not naming for legal reasons, and a telephone number for a man named Pavel. In a phone conversation to set up a meeting, Pavel sought to reassure his prospective client that it wasn't a scam. 'Brother, it is not only you,' he said. 'I have one hundred people.' A second undercover reporter met Pavel at his restaurant at 8pm on a balmy Saturday evening. It appeared to be doing good business, with customers on red leather sofas chatting. Pavel's slicked-back hair and bulging biceps were enough to let anyone know he meant business. At one point, he was seen clasping a pair of pliers as he grinned menacingly at our reporter. Soon, it was time to talk cash. The payment was agreed at £1,500 per person. For the proposed five migrants, this came to a total of £7,500. 'You know brother, I am dealing with all the people,' Pavel explained. 'It's like insurance.' He continued: 'It [the money] is going to stay until they arrive. I'm going to wait for a call from you. 'So, they're going to come to London. They're going to disappear for two, three days. They'll be taken to a hotel... Then they call you saying we are here. Then you're going to call me back. 'Pavel, they are here, safe.' Then I'm going to transfer the money to them [the smugglers] in France. That's how it's going to be.' He added that there would be a £100 fee per person to transfer the money. In most hawala exchanges, however, cash is never physically transferred. Instead, it is a transfer of debt. Usually, the money is first paid to the hawala agent in the UK to facilitate the crossing. Once the migrants have arrived in England, the UK broker then owes this money to the smuggler in Dunkirk. If money needs to be sent in the opposite direction, the debt evens out and the agents take a percentage of the transaction as a fee. The system is legal in the UK, provided a broker registers with the Financial Conduct Authority, and is commonly used by immigrants to send cash home to their families. But the informal process makes it attractive to criminals, who leave no trace, and to the migrants, as it acts as a guarantee and protects them from being scammed. The NCA has described this process as 'criminal escrow'. As a Somalian hawaladar admitted in a UN report last year: 'In the hawala system, we don't ask questions. We only offer the service.' But Vinto's description of the arrangements suggests he knew just what the money was for: facilitating the record 20,000 small-boat migrants who have reached Britain in the first half of this year. Vinto told our reporter he has run his restaurant for only two-and-a-half years, the same amount of time he has lived in England. Before that, he lived in Germany, but prefers it here, he said. No surprise, given his current residence in Kingston upon Thames, an affluent area of south-west London. Astonishingly, NCA officers had previously arrested a Kurdish man connected with the same restaurant on suspicion of money-laundering offences. The arrest was not connected to Vinto. The Ealing restaurant is far from the only high-street establishment to be acting as a money exchange for people smugglers. An Iranian carpet business in London was found to be operating as a front in a network of bankers transferring money for people traffickers following an NCA investigation. Asghar Gheshalghian, 48, was jailed for eight years after phone evidence revealed his links with at least eight Iranian migrants who later arrived in the UK by boat or lorry and claimed asylum. And a car wash franchise in Caerphilly, Wales, was busted after the NCA discovered it was a front for a people-smuggling ring. The Prime Minister has claimed that freezing the assets of those who aid illegal migration will allow the UK to 'break' their business model. The Government is set to introduce a new sanctions regime by the end of this year, designed to stop individuals using the UK to launder cash for smugglers. Announcing his plans in January, Sir Keir said: 'If you're going to smash a gang that is driven by money, follow the money.' But critics have argued the measures are too minor to stop small-boat crossings. Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: 'Labour is allowing people smugglers and their money men to operate right under their noses with impunity. 'Their laughable claim to smash the gangs lies in tatters. Labour's tinkering around the edges is making no difference. So far, 2025 has been the worst in history for illegal immigrants crossing the Channel. 'Only a removals deterrent will actually stop this – so every illegal immigrant arriving here is immediately removed to a location outside Europe.' An NCA spokesman said: 'Tackling organised immigration crime, including that facilitated via the hawala banking system, remains a top priority for the NCA because the criminal groups involved put lives at risk and threaten the UK's border security. 'We have around 80 investigations ongoing into the highest harm people-smuggling networks impacting the UK and are working with partners at home and abroad to disrupt and dismantle them. 'We'd like to thank the Mail for providing this information, which we are examining more closely.' A Home Office spokesman said: 'Criminal hawaladars are not welcome in the UK. They should be in no doubt they will face the full force of the law. Illegal money laundering for people smugglers can result in 14 years in prison.'
The Sun
4 hours ago
- The Sun
Diddy spiked my drink – it felt like I had 50 valium… he wanted me to leave with him but I feared I'd be raped
A FORMER gogo dancer in Ibiza clubland believes she had a narrow escape from the clutches of Sean 'Diddy' Combs – claiming he spiked her drink and made sexual advances. Belen Ronda Campesino, 45, says she felt so out of it after encountering the now disgraced hip-hip mogul at the club she worked at, that it felt like she had taken '50 Valium tablets'. 8 8 8 The beautician claims Combs, 55, then tried to drag her to a house party where she fears she might have been raped. Her story comes after Grammy-winning US rapper Combs was convicted on Wednesday of prostitution charges in his sex-crimes trial in New York. He was found not guilty of the more serious crimes of racketeering and sex-trafficking but could still face 20 years in prison. Belen says details from the star's trial — including claims he made two ex-girlfriends have sex with male escorts at drug-fuelled parties referred to as 'freak-offs' — had turned her stomach, made her heart race and given her 'severe anxiety'. She adds: 'It makes me furious to hear during his trial what he has done to women. 'I don't really follow the news but when I saw some pictures of this guy because of his trial I got really nervous. 'I had a similar experience with him to everything that has been coming out now.' Belen says she encountered Combs in 2006 around the DJ booth at the DC-10 club where she worked. She recalls: 'It looked like he had taken a lot of drugs, his jaw was totally out of joint. 'He was with four very large bodyguards. Diddy's 'phantom fixer' breaks her cover after rapper cleared of racketeering 'He made sexual advances on me, telling me that he liked me a lot.' Belen, who lives in Spain, says things had begun to go south, when Combs bought her a drink. She adds: 'I saw that when he went to put the wad of cash away he took out a bag with a white powder in it, which I thought was cocaine. 'But he started to do something weird in his pocket and it really bothered me. 'I turned around and was telling a friend, but then I stupidly drank the juice. 'About 10 or 15 minutes later I started feeling dizzy and sleepy and I was sweating heavily. 'I didn't understand what was going on.' She reveals that she had tried to escape to the VIP area, but he followed her there and tried to get her to a party at his house. 8 8 She says: 'I told him I didn't want to go, that I was not feeling well and needed to go home. 'He squeezed my arm and was pulling on my hand. 'That's when I felt sure they had put something in my drink. 'My friend really wanted to go to the party but I told her we might be raped if we went.' 'Dizzy and sleepy' She says Combs tried to stop her leaving, but she ran to the bathroom and left the club. She reveals: 'The next day I slept the whole day. 'People were calling me and ringing my bell at home but I didn't hear anything. 'It was like I had taken 50 Valium tablets. 'Now I realise I had a very lucky escape.' A party fixer exclusively told The Sun on Sunday last year how Ibiza clubs such as DC-10, Space and Amnesia were Combs' stomping grounds for years. After the verdicts were read out on Wednesday at his trial, Combs dropped to his knees and made a praying gesture. 8 But he was denied bail, remains in jail and is expected to be sentenced over his prostitution conviction on October 3. But due to sentencing guidelines, he is likely to serve less than five years in prison. A lawyer representing more than 100 alleged victims in civil cases against Combs vowed they would fight on despite the sex-trafficking and racketeering not-guilty verdicts. Tony Buzbee said: 'Diddy dodged a big bullet today. 'But that doesn't end the saga.'
