Fugitive head of Kurdish people smuggling gang caught on return to UK

Tarik Namik had been jailed for eight years in his absence

Tarik Namik, the head of a Kurdish people smuggling ring, has been arrested after going on the run ahead of his sentencing for people trafficking. PA

The convicted ringleader of a “prolific” Kurdish people smuggling gang, who went on the run when he was sentenced in absentia last month to eight years in prison, has been arrested.

Tarik Namik, 45, of Oldham near Manchester, north-west England, was detained on Friday after landing at Manchester Airport on a flight from Istanbul.

Police had issued a warrant for his arrest after he failed to attend Manchester Crown Court last month, when he was convicted of heading a “sophisticated, lucrative criminal enterprise” smuggling Kurdish migrants.

Working with traffickers abroad, the group is suspected of smuggling at least 1,900 migrants who were picked up in the Balkans and taken to France or Germany during a 50-day period.

The gang then offered different means for trying to enter Britain, where the migrants would claim asylum.

Kurdish 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 National Crime Agency (NCA) said.

A surge in the small vessel crossings since 2017 has led to tens of thousands of migrants now arriving annually on England's south-eastern coast, rather than stowed away in lorries.

Alongside Namik, four other men — based in Manchester, Stoke-on-Trent and Nottingham — received sentences ranging from 16 months to nearly five years for their role in the criminal scheme.

All five had admitted the charges against them at previous hearings.

Namik was due to appear at Manchester magistrates court on Saturday before being formally sentenced at the city's crown court on Monday.

“Namik was a prolific people smuggler whose crime group put vulnerable migrants at great risk while he reaped the profits,” said NCA Branch Commander Richard Harrison.

“Fugitives never come off our radar, and I'd 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.”