‘Best smuggler’ jailed after helping people cross Channel in dinghies

An Iranian man who bragged about being ‘the best smuggler’ has been jailed after arranging Channel crossings from his home in Lancashire.

Amanj Hasan Zada is seen lifting a pistol above his head, pretending to fire it into the air in a video found on YouTube, which is thought to have been recorded in Iraq in 2021.

Around him, a crowd of men cheers while Kurdish musicians sing a song about his skillset in smuggling people on dinghies to Britain.

He is shown throwing money at his friends as they sing that ‘all the other people smugglers have learned from him.’

The 34-year-old, from Preston, was linked directly to three crossings made from France to the UK in November and December 2023.

Each involved a group of Kurds who had journeyed through Eastern Europe, into Germany, Belgium and then France.

Zada, who was known by the people he smuggled as Amanj Zaman, advertised his services on social media often using videos of those he had successfully smuggled thanking him for his help.

One film showed a group of people on a small boat in Italy praising him.

National Crime Agency (NCA) officers were able to record conversations he had with other smugglers, discussing movements of people, locations and successful crossings.

Following Zada’s arrest in May 2024 his phone was seized. Analysis showed it was linked to a number of social media accounts used to post material, and phone numbers advertised on them.

He had direct contact with some of the people who arrived in boats last year. Travel tickets for one of them were found on the handset.

Zada was charged with three counts of facilitating illegal immigration. The jury at Preston Crown Court found him guilty on all three charges.

He is due to be sentenced later.

The NCA branch commander Martin Clarke said Zada ran a ‘sophisticated’ people smuggling enterprise, using social media to advertise his services.

‘For him it was all about profit, and he had no issues with putting people in life threatening situations as long as he got paid,’ he added.

‘People smugglers like him risk lives, which is why we are determined to do all we can to stop them, wherever they operate.’

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