Overview
- Canterbury Crown Court sentenced Sorin-Costinel Ivan to three years and four months and Marius Bajenaru to two years and eight months this week.
- National Crime Agency officers arrested the pair at the Port of Dover on 18 September in an operation supported by Port of Dover Police, Kent Police and Immigration Enforcement.
- Investigators found 17 people in a Romanian-registered panel van and 32, mostly Bangladeshi nationals, in the trailer of an HGV.
- Cash seized included nearly £4,000 from the van and £9,950 from the lorry, while Bajenaru confessed to collecting people from an A20 layby for about £200 per person and Ivan later admitted facilitating illegal immigration.
- The NCA says organised crime groups are recruiting or coercing HGV drivers to move people across the Channel, and it continues disruption efforts and industry awareness campaigns.