People-smuggling boss who fled UK is arrested

Tarik Namik was detained at Manchester Airport after a flight from Istanbul

The head of a people-smuggling ring who fled the UK to avoid jail has been arrested.

Tarik Namik led a gang that brought people from Iraq and Iran to the UK hidden in lorries.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) said his phone records suggested he may have been involved in smuggling at least 1,900 migrants in 50 days, charging each person about €1,800 (£1,540).

He was detained at Manchester Airport after a flight from Turkey on Friday.

The 45-year-old, from Oldham, was sentenced in absentia for eight years at Manchester Crown Court in December after fleeing abroad.

Namik had previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to help asylum seekers enter the UK.

An image shows Habil Gider and Tarik Namik meeting at the latter's car wash in Stockport

His organised crime group became the subject of an NCA investigation in 2017.

In one case, nine people - including five children - were found in a distressed state in the back of a lorry in a lay-by.

People were also smuggled hidden in the wind deflector of a lorry's cabin.

Most were ethnic Kurds from Iran and Iraq, a trial at Manchester Crown Court heard.

People who were smuggled to Skelmersdale, Lancashire, repeatedly rang 999 as they became desperate for food and water when they escaped from a lorry, before being taken for hospital treatment.

Tarik Namik and Hajar Ahmed were pictured by the NCA at a bank in Oldham

Four men who worked with Namik were also jailed in December after pleading guilty to conspiracy to help asylum seekers enter the UK.

Hajar Ahmed, 40, from Manchester, and Soran Saliy, 32, from Stoke-on-Trent, helped co-ordinate the British part of the operation.

Habil Gider, 54, also from Stoke-on-Trent, acted as an escort for some migrants once they were in the UK, while Hardi Alizada, 32, from Nottingham, coordinated operations abroad on the European continent.

At their sentencing in December, Judge John Potter said they had "grossly exploited these individuals' unfortunate plight and undermined the security of the UK".

The judge said: "You displayed a ruthlessness which in some cases exposed desperate individuals to danger for your own selfish and greedy needs."

NCA branch commander Richard Harrison said: "Namik was a prolific people smuggler whose crime group put vulnerable migrants at great risk while he reaped the profits.

"I'm delighted that he will now face justice for the offences he committed."

Namik is due to be formally sentenced in person at Manchester Crown Court on Monday.