Appeal to trace suspected people-smuggling boss from Bradford

The National Crime Agency wants to find Goran Jalal (left) and Hemin Ali Salih (right), who both absconded while on bail

A warrant has been issued for the arrest of the suspected ringleader of an organised crime group which smuggled migrants to the UK.

Six men have recently been sentenced for their part in an operation carrying migrants through Portsmouth Port in the back of a refrigerated lorry.

But Goran Jalal, 37, from Bradford, absconded while on bail awaiting trial.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) has now launched an appeal to find him and said it "would not rest" until he was found.

The agency made a further appeal for help finding Hemin Ali Salih, 37, from Manchester, who also absconded while on bail and who was convicted in his absence following a trial for his role in the operation.

Marinel Danut Palage transported migrants on a ferry from France to Portsmouth, a trial heard

Members of the gang were arrested in March 2019 after a four-year investigation into the people-smuggling operation through Portsmouth International Port.

Key to the plot was Romanian lorry driver Marinel Danut Palage, 31, who transported migrants from France to a handover meeting on an industrial estate in Runcton, West Sussex, the NCA said.

The operation was carried out at least three times, bringing about 10 to 12 people illegally into the UK, a trial at Bournemouth Crown Court heard.

Palage, who lived in Spain and who was alleged to have worked with Goran Jalal, of Brandfort Street, Bradford, to organise the crossings, was sentenced in April to nine years in prison after being found guilty of conspiring to facilitate illegal immigration.

Following the same trial, Pshtewan Ghafour, 37, of Camsell Court, Middlesbrough, was jailed for five years after being found guilty of conspiring to facilitate illegal immigration.

Kamaran Kader, 44, of Basil Street, Bradford, was also sentenced in April to four years and six months in prison after pleading guilty to the same offence at an earlier hearing.

As part of the same trial, Jamal Walid Saied, 38, of Brightstone Walk, Manchester, Mariwan Tofiq Mustafa, 33, of Ovenden Way, Halifax, and Salih, of Bryson Walk, Manchester, who was convicted in his absence, were all found guilty of facilitating illegal immigration.

On Wednesday, they were sentenced to three years, two-and-a half-years, and two years in jail respectively.

Cash was discovered hidden in the lorry used during the people-smuggling operation, a court was told

NCA branch commander Richard Harrison said: "People smugglers risk lives, which is why targeting them is a priority for the NCA and we are doing all we can to disrupt and dismantle the criminal networks involved.

"The men convicted and sentenced put profit ahead of people [and] were happy to put vulnerable migrants into the backs of lorries for long Channel sea crossings.

"But Goran Jalal and Hemin Ali Salih both remain at large. Warrants have been issued for their arrests and we will not rest until they are in custody."

Anyone with information about the whereabouts of either man was asked to contact either the NCA or Crimestoppers.

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