LONDON
\nThe convicted ringleader of a \u201cprolific\u201d Kurdish people-smuggling gang, on the run when he was sentenced in absentia last month to eight years in prison, has been arrested, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said Saturday.
\nTarik Namik, 45, of Oldham near Manchester, northwest England, was detained on Friday after landing at Manchester Airport on a flight from Istanbul.
\nPolice had issued a warrant for his arrest following his no-show at Manchester Crown Court last month, when he was convicted of heading a \u201csophisticated, lucrative criminal enterprise\u201d smuggling Kurdish migrants.
\nWorking with traffickers abroad, the group is suspected of smuggling at least 1,900 migrants who were picked up in the Balkans and brought to France or Germany during a 50-day period.
\nThe gang then offered different means for trying to enter Britain, where the migrants would claim asylum.
\nKurdish criminal groups control the increasingly lucrative cross-Channel illegal migration routes, using both lorries and, more recently, small boats to cross the busy shipping lane, according to the NCA.
\nA surge in the small vessel crossings since 2017 has led to tens of thousands of migrants now arriving annually on England\u2019s southeastern coast, rather than stowed away in trucks.
\nAlongside Namik, four other men \u2014 based in Manchester, Stoke-on-Trent and Nottingham \u2014 received sentences ranging from 16 months to nearly five years for their role in the criminal scheme.
\nAll five had admitted the charges against them at previous hearings.
\nNamik was to appear Saturday before Manchester magistrates before being formally sentenced at the city\u2019s crown court on Monday.
\n\u201cNamik was a prolific people smuggler whose crime group put vulnerable migrants at great risk while he reaped the profits,\u201d said NCA Branch Commander Richard Harrison.
\n\u201cFugitives never come off our radar, and I\u2019d like to thank our colleagues at Greater Manchester Police for their assistance in ensuring he was detained quickly the moment he set foot back in the UK.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LONDON The convicted ringleader of a \u201cprolific\u201d Kurdish people-smuggling gang, on the run when he was sentenced in absentia last month to eight years in prison, has been arrested, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said Saturday. Tarik Namik, 45, of Oldham near Manchester, northwest England, was detained on Friday after landing at Manchester Airport on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":309092,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-309074","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n