UK jails ringleader of huge people-smuggling racket

LONDON - A ringleader of a gang which smuggled thousands of illegal immigrants across Europe was jailed in London today.

The network shipped the mainly Turkish and Kurdish migrants, including children, into Britain in dangerously cramped containers and lorries in journeys that sometimes took months.

Ramazan Zorlu, 43, was jailed for eight-and-a-half years at Croydon Crown Court in south London after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit unlawful immigration into Britain.

Police said investigations across Europe had intercepted hundreds of illegal immigrants the gang had tried to smuggle into Britain. They had paid up to £14,000 ($39,840) each.

"You must have considered these people merely as commodities rather than people to be cared for," Judge Nicholas Ainley told Zorlu.

Two of the gang's other leaders, Ali Riza Gun and Hassan Eroglu, who was imprisoned for six years, also admitted running the crime ring. Seven others have pleaded guilty to involvement.

"This is the most significant human smuggling ring ever investigated and prosecuted in the UK," Detective Chief Superintendent Maxine De Brunner told reporters, saying the gang had thought themselves "untouchable".

"It was these 10 defendants ... who operated in the upper tier of this criminal network."

Police said there had been more than 60 arrests across Europe leading to prison sentences totalling more than 160 years after the racket was smashed last October, following a two-year investigation by London police involving 21 European countries.

- REUTERS