A pair of Iraqi people smugglers were caught after a yacht carrying migrants ran ground on arrival in the UK.
Footage released by the National Crime Agency (NCA) shows the vessel coming to a halt and migrants coming ashore in a small dinghy in the town of Rye, on Britain’s south coast.
Within two hours, 14 migrants from Iran, Iraq and Albania, including two children, had been detained by Border Force officers, after the incident in February 2022.
NCA officers who examined some of their phones identified Mohammed Ali Nareman, 37, and Ali Omar Karim, 47, as being behind the smuggling operation.
Video clips were found of migrants on board saying "we are all Hama Kalari's passengers, thank the great God now we are in the water”. It was established they were referring to Nareman.
Nareman's own phone had maps saved of the French and British coastlines, as well as photos of migrants' passports and messages of him directing people to his London home.
Video footage of him holding $66,800 in cash was also found on the phone. The device also held evidence of numerous conversations with contacts regarding small boats crossing the English Channel, arranging lorries to transport migrants illegally, the prices migrants were charged and even arguments with other smugglers about Channel crossing attempts.
Another phone was found hidden under a child's play tent at Nareman's home, which had videos, photos, messages and voice mail indicating his involvement in people trafficking.
Evidence on Karim's phone suggested migrants paid $1,070 to $1,335 to be transported to European Union, then charged another, larger amount to be smuggled from France to the UK.
Messages showed Nareman and Karim discussing another people-smuggling attempt in November 2022, which suggested they charged migrants $2,200 each for travelling in the back of a lorry.
Karim’s phone revealed he was controlling a network of people smugglers across northern Europe and the Middle East.
Messages also referred to dinghies, indicating a number of crossings and the scale of the operation he and Nareman were running. They also discussed weather forecasts, suggesting on one evening that the danger was “very high”.
On January 19, 2023, the pair discussed smuggling people into the UK by lorry, for which they charged £12,000 ($16,000) apiece.
Senior NCA investigator Rachel Bramley described Nareman as “extremely prolific in the criminal world of people smuggling”.
“His messages with Karim and others showed the group's disdain for the people they were transporting – they were seen as nothing more than a commodity for them to make money from,” she said.
"Our investigators uncovered their extensive digital footprint, which showed months of activity organising crossings both by small boats and HGVs, sharing routes and prices, receiving praise in videos of migrants on their crossings and boasting of the proceeds they made.”
Nareman was charged with facilitation of unlawful migration, conspiracy to facilitate unlawful migration and acquiring criminal property.
But a judge ruled he was unfit to stand trial because he suffered from suffered from PTSD, panic attacks and depression, which meant he could not be cross-examined or properly instruct defence lawyers.
Instead a "trial of facts" took place and a jury at Maidstone Crown Court found Nareman had committed people-smuggling offences.
Karim was arrested in Portsmouth in March 2024 and pleaded guilty to people-smuggling offences in June of that year. He will be sentenced on January 8 next year.
Nareman will be held in custody until the same date but cannot be jailed and instead faces detention in a psychiatric hospital, possibly being placed under a supervision order while he is treated.
