Overview
- Anjan Ahmadi pleaded guilty at Preston Crown Court to facilitating illegal immigration to the UK and EU and was sentenced on October 27.
- Investigators said Ahmadi acted as Amanj Hasan Zada’s right-hand man, arranging travel, liaising with migrants and other smugglers, and driving him while they lived at the same Preston address.
- Phone evidence included voice notes in which a migrant requested to travel “not by dinghy,” and Ahmadi referred him to a lorry-based smuggler, telling him to “go with my name.”
- Zada, identified as the network’s head, was jailed for 17 years in November 2024 after being linked to multiple 2023 Channel crossings involving Kurdish migrants routed through Eastern Europe.
- The probe drew on social-media advertising and a 2021 YouTube video hailing Zada as “the best smuggler,” and led to January 2025 arrests in Sulaymaniyah, including two smugglers and a hawala banker, with inquiries continuing.