LONDON: The convicted ringleader of a "prolific" Kurdish people-smuggling ring who was on the run when he was sentenced in absentia to eight years in prison last month has been arrested, the National Crime Agency (NCA) announced on Saturday.

Tariq Namik, 45, was arrested on Friday after arriving at Manchester airport on a plane from Istanbul. He is from Oldham, which is close to Manchester in North-West England.

After failing to appear at Manchester Crown Court last month, where he pleaded guilty to running a "sophisticated, lucrative criminal enterprise" trafficking Kurdish migrants, police issued a warrant for his arrest.

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The group is suspected of smuggling at least 1,900 migrants, who were taken from the Balkans and brought to France or Germany over a period of 50 days by working with international traffickers.

The gang then provided various methods for migrants to attempt to enter the UK, where they would apply for asylum. The NCA claims that Kurdish criminal organizations are in charge of lucrative cross-Channel illegal migration routes, which are currently being crossed by small boats in addition to lorries.

Since 2017, there has been an increase in small vessel crossings, with the result that thousands of migrants are now arriving on the south-east coast of England annually, rather than huddled in trucks.

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Along with Namik, four other men from Manchester, Stoke-on-Trent and Nottingham were given sentences ranging from 16 months to almost five years for their involvement in the criminal enterprise.

In the last hearing, all the five accused accepted the charges.
Namik was due to appear before Manchester magistrates on Saturday, before receiving a formal sentencing on Monday at the city's Crown Court.

According to NCA Branch Commander Richard Harrison, "Namik was a prolific human trafficker whose crime syndicate put vulnerable migrants at great risk while it reaped profits."

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Fugitive suspects are always on our radar, and I want to thank Greater Manchester Police for helping to ensure that he is quickly apprehended upon his return to the UK.