'Two Smugglers Sentenced for Illegally Transporting 100 Migrants Weekly to Europe via £1.8M 'Tripadvisor' Scheme'

TWO men behind a Tripadvisor-style smuggling plot that brought 100 migrants to Europe each week have been jailed.

Dilshad Shamo, 41, and Ali Khdir, 40, hid behind an unassuming car wash in to run the massive operation.

The gang used TikTok for their reviewsCredit: WNS Migrants looking happy on a boat in one of the Tripadvisor-style reviewsCredit: WNS They ran the operation from their legitimate car wash serviceCredit: WNS

The pair – originally from Iraq and Iran but living and working legally in the UK – offered a multi-tier service to potential migrants.

Their service had different modes of transport along the route to Europe, depending on the price paid.

Migrants were then encouraged to rate their journeys in videos filmed inside lorries or boats as part of the so-called “ for people smugglers”.

In one clip released by the National Agency (NCA), a man in the back of a lorry can be heard asking: “How was the route, guys?”

While one Iranian family who posed outside an airport after being smuggled to Europe said: “God bless you, we are very grateful.”

Another showed men smiling to the camera as they pointed to at least a dozen other migrants travelling on a boat.

Derek Evans, NCA branch commander, said Shamo and Khdir operated “like a travel agency”.

The highest tier – platinum – would get migrants a fake passport and air travel but came at a cost of between £10,000 and £25,000.

Gold would buy travel on a ship and between £8,000 and £10,000, while bronze got migrants travel in a heavy goods vehicle or dinghy across the Channel for up to £5,000.

Shamo and Khdir trafficked hundreds of illegal immigrants from the Middle East to Europe – with many ending up in the UK.

A judge said they ran a “well-organised and successful” travel agency with a turnover estimated to be worth £1.8million as she jailed the men for a total of 38 years today.

Recorder of Tracey Lloyd Clarke told them: “You were both the organisers of a large and sophisticated network which enabled the successful illegal movement of a very large number of migrants from Iran, Iraq, and Syria into and across Europe.

“You provided that service to almost anyone who was prepared to pay your fees.”

A court heard the pair ran the hand car wash together which was a “cover” for their secret smuggling business.

Between them, they moved people from Iraq, Iran and Syria through the EU to Italy, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Croatia, Austria, Germany and France.

Prosecutor Sarah Gaunt said the pair’s main business was “trafficking of people” or “people smuggling, predominantly of migrants from Iran, Iraq and Syria.”

NCA investigators estimate at least 409 people were trafficked into Europe by the men in just the six months they were being watched by officers.

But they stressed this was the lowest estimate and the number of people successfully trafficked might have reached more than 600.

Money was lodged with an informal system of banking that does not involve banks, known as Hawala.

Agents working for Shamo and Khdir in Iraq and Istanbul would then arrange and obtain funds from migrants travelling on particular routes.

Khdir was recorded by hidden microphones in cars telling Shamo: “Just tell them that we are buying and selling cars, just say we do transfer money from our home country.”

The court heard the defendants used different methods to smuggle people into Europe known as “the Turkey route”, “the visa route”, “the lorry route” or “the Bosnian route”.

The “Turkey route” involved migrants from Iran, Iraq or Syria legally crossing into Turkey before illegally travelling onwards by ship into Italy.

The “tourist visa” method saw people obtain legal documents to enter countries such as Belarus and Moldova to then be trafficked into Romania, Germany or Austria.

Ms Gaunt said the “lorry route” had migrants taken on lorries then by sea or by road to Italy and German or “onwards to other countries such as France.”

A fourth method was known as the “Bosnian route” where cars or taxis were used used to transport various individuals into Croatia or Slovenia and on to Italy.

Shamo and Khdir, of Caerphilly, South Wales, admitted five counts of conspiring to breach migration laws in Italy, Romania, Croatia and Germany.

Cardiff Crown Court heard the offences – under the 1971 Act – are alleged to have been carried out between October 2022 and April 2023.

Shamo and Khdir were each jailed for 19 years and told they must serve at least 40 per cent of their sentence behind bars.

The men promoted their smuggling services on TelegramCredit: WNS One migrant takes a picture in the back of a lorryCredit: WNS Dilshad Shamo has been jailedCredit: WNS Ali Khdir was also locked up todayCredit: WNS