Traffickers caught after woman found in glove box

Eight members of a UK-based people smuggling gang are facing jail after a woman was discovered crammed inside an expanded car glove box, prompting an investigation.

Border Force officers found the Vietnamese woman hidden in the cramped compartment concealed behind the dashboard of a car that was halted after cross the Channel from France in June 2022.

It led investigators to uncover an international people smuggling network that took non-EU nationals through Europe and into the UK.

Three of the gang were found guilty of assisting unlawful immigration at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court and will appear again in court later this month alongside five others for a sentencing date yet to be set.

Jozef Kadet, 25, of Manchester, Redar Curtis, 30, of Kennington, Kent, and Khales Akram Jabar, 44, of Middlesbrough, were each found guilty of the charge after a 10-week trial.

The court heard how the gang worked between 2022 and 2024 to smuggle people to the UK via land and air.

This included use of documents believed to have been made in a Greek forgery factory to enable non-EU national to enter the UK, the Home Office said.

Counterfeit documents, more than 20,000 illicit cigarettes and £6,000 in cash was also seized as part of the police investigation.

Five other gang members had previously pleaded guilty to the charges put to them:

• Mukhlis Jamal Hamadamin, 43, of Stockport, admitted four counts of conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration to the UK, one count of conspiracy to make an article for use in a fraud and one count of possession of an identity document with improper intention
• His brother, Muhamad Jamal Hamadamin, 27, also of Stockport, pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud and one count of possessing an identity document with improper intention
• Yassen Jalal Mohammed, 43, from Huddersfield, admitted three counts of conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration to the UK
• Dlawar Omar, 40, from Hull, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration
• Emily Etherington, 37, from Kennington, also pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration

A month after the woman was discovered in the car, Etherington was stopped by border guards who found she was hiding another woman behind the dashboard of her vehicle.

Her husband Curtis was then linked to the operation prompting the Home Office to launch a wider investigation, which involved police forces in Spain, Greece and Ireland.

A breakthrough was made when in November 2023, Mukhlis Jamal Hamadamin, was arrested at Manchester Airport.

It came after a parcel from Greece containing a fake Greek driving licence addressed to a property in Bolton was intercepted, with Hamadamin's phone number listed as the contact.

On the phone, evidence including hundreds of images of passports and boarding passes, messages about false documents, and videos believed to have been recorded inside a forgery factory in Greece were found.

All eight will next appear at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court on 29 January.

Dame Angela Eagle, the minister for border security and asylum, said the case exposed the "ruthless tactics" of people smugglers.

"They have no regard for human life and exploit vulnerable individuals solely for profit, putting them in incredibly dangerous situations," she said.

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