How we found Europe’s most wanted migrant-smuggler
I am sitting in a shopping mall in Iraq, face-to-face with one of Europe’s most notorious people-smugglers. His name is Barzan Majeed, and he is wanted by police forces in several countries, including the UK.
Over the course of our conversation - both here and the next day at his office - he says he does not know how many migrants he has transported across the English Channel. “Maybe a thousand, maybe 10,000. I don’t know, I didn’t count.”
The meeting is the culmination of what had seemed like an impossible task a few months earlier. Together with Rob Lawrie, a former soldier who works with refugees, I had set out to find and question the man known as Scorpion. For several years, he and his gang controlled much of the people-smuggling trade - in boats and lorries - across the English Channel.
More than 70 migrants have died making the crossing by boat since 2018 - last month, five people were killed off the French coast, including a seven-year-old girl.
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At every stage, we shared our discoveries with the authorities in the UK and Europe.
Ann Lukowiak, a public prosecutor in Belgium who was involved in convicting Scorpion, still hopes that one day he will be extradited from Iraq.
“It’s important to us to have sent the signal that you can't do what you want,” she says. “We will eventually take him down.”
Full story at
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3g92zkd7n4o