Birmingham People Smuggler Convicted as Part of Vast European Criminal Network
Sarfaraz Sardarzehi, a key member of an immigration organised crime group, has been convicted after being caught with three illegal migrants in his car in Birmingham. The investigation by National Crime Agency officers revealed his involvement in a vast people smuggling operation that stretched from Europe into South East England and up into the Midlands.
The Arrest and Investigation Details
Sardarzehi was stopped by West Midlands Police officers in Birmingham on September 4, 2020, while driving a silver Vauxhall Corsa with three migrants inside. Initially, he claimed he had simply given them a lift, but later admitted in interviews that he knew they were migrants. His associate, Duc Quang Ta, was arrested the previous day on the M25 in Leatherhead, Surrey, as an illegal immigrant.
During Ta's arrest, police found £55,020 in cash stuffed in a plastic bag in the rear passenger footwell of a BMW X5, along with an additional £1,000 in his pocket. A seized phone showed messages from Ta about £56,000 in cash just hours before his arrest, indicating he was heading to Kent to hand the money to co-conspirators who had arranged for migrants to be smuggled into the UK in the back of an HGV.
Operation and Criminal Network
The criminal network, which Sardarzehi and Ta were part of, hid migrants in the backs of lorries that travelled to the UK via ferries or the Channel Tunnel. Once in the UK, the migrants were quickly transferred by car away from the south coast to reduce the risk of detection by Border Force officers. The plan involved bringing illegal immigrants into Gillingham in Surrey, from where they would be taken to 'safe houses' elsewhere in the UK.
Ta, a Vietnamese national, was involved in the transport or attempted transport of migrants on 16 occasions between August 18 and September 6, 2020, with Sardarzehi assisting in three of these attempts. During this period, 22 people were successfully smuggled into the UK, though the offending is suspected to have occurred over a much wider timeframe.
Roles and Communication Methods
Ta had more of an 'organiser' role, acting like an agent or operations manager by coordinating drivers, lorries, safe houses, and immigrants. Sardarzehi served as a 'taxi driver,' moving migrants once they were in the UK and also handling cash for the group. The group communicated over encrypted social media apps and used slang to evade detection, referring to migrants as 'siblings,' 'chicken,' 'pork,' or 'things,' police as 'dogs,' refrigerated trucks as 'fridges,' ferries as going by 'water,' money as 'paper,' and vehicles as 'horses.'
Conviction and Sentencing
Ta, 36, from Reading, and Sardarzehi, 58, from London, were found guilty of people smuggling and money laundering charges by a jury at Birmingham Crown Court on February 23, following a three-week trial. Both men have been bailed and are set to appear at the same court for sentencing on July 10.
Official Statements and Broader Impact
NCA senior investigating officer David Cushway stated, "Ta and Sardarzehi were part of an organised immigration crime group that exploited migrants at every step of their dangerous journeys to the UK, all for the sake of profit. They placed these people at enormous risk by putting them in HGVs, with the language they used to describe them indicative of the disdain they held them in."
Cushway added that such cases harden the NCA's resolve to bring individuals like Ta and Sardarzehi before the courts and disrupt the organised crime groups behind this trade. The NCA is currently leading approximately 100 ongoing investigations into networks or individuals involved in top-tier organised immigration crime or human trafficking, targeting groups at every step of the route from source countries to inside the UK itself.
