Hewa Rahimpur has been sentenced by a Belgian court for being involved in a "systematic human smuggling" gang.
The 30-year-old was originally detained on 4th May 2022 as part of a joint investigation between the National Crime Agency and Belgian authorities.
His arrest triggered a Europe-wide operation to dismantle the network, which led to further arrests across the UK, France, Germany and the Netherlands later in July 2022.
Rahimpur led the network from his home in Ilford, East London, sourcing the boats in Turkey and having them delivered to locations across Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands.
The boats would then be moved from these locations to the northern French coast, from where migrants would then be transported into the UK.
The UK National Crime Agency said the gang would make between £175,000 and £260,000 in profit from each of the perilous Channel crossings.
It is believed that the gang were responsible for nearly 10% of crossings to the UK in a 12- to-18-month period.
Report by Caponm.
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