The leader of a major organised crime group and four associates responsible for distributing huge quantities of Class A drugs across the North East of the country have been jailed.

The Crown Prosecution Service has today announced Khondaker Fuad Hasan, Liu Xu Hopkins and Benjamin Hopkins have been charged with the following offences:

ix members of an organised criminal gang (OCG) have been convicted for playing key roles in smuggling as much as £430, 925 in cash hidden inside DVDs cases on their way to Dubai.

Atif Hussain, 33, Usman Mahmood, 38, and Shafiq Zahid, 47, were convicted today of being part of the money laundering arrangement.

On a previous occasion, Asad Saddique, 34, Haroon Iqbal, 38, and Tallat Hussain, 34, pleaded guilty to the same offence.

This criminal activity was investigated by the National Crime Agency. The Crown Prosecution Service made the decision to prosecute.

Two men have been jailed for conspiring to facilitate the illegal immigration of migrants – including eight children - into the UK who were hidden in the back of a lorry.

Daniel Loughran, 34, and Eoin Nolan, 51, were found guilty in February following a trial at Maidstone Crown Court of conspiring to assist with unlawful immigration.

The defendants were prosecuted by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) following an investigation by the National Crime Agency (NCA).

A group of people smugglers who hid migrants in lorries have today been jailed.

The organised crime group – consisting of Azize Benaniba, 41, Mahmoud Haidous, 53, Mohamed Bechkit, 36, Abed Karrouz, 40, Amor Ghabbari, 32, Mohamed Abdelhadi, 50, and Mohamed Bouriche, 43, – would arrange to meet migrants, normally those who had flown to the UK from North Africa on tourist visas, in north London then transport them to Kent, where they boarded lorries travelling from Dover to Calais. They received jail terms ranging from seven years and three months to 13 years and six months.

A man who played a leading role in an organised crime group (OCG) which smuggled thousands of migrants has today been jailed.

Between October 2022 and June 2023, Ahmed Ramadan Mohamad Ebid, 42, from the UK conspired with others outside the UK to assist unlawful immigration by supplying maritime vessels for the purpose of illegally smuggling migrants from Libya to Italy.

PEOPLE smuggling gangs who exploit vulnerable people for financial gain could see their criminal enterprises dismantled more swiftly thanks to a £3.23m funding boost for extra prosecutors.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has been allocated extra funds by Government to increase capacity for work on the Border Security Command. The money will allow CPS to recruit additional staff in the areas at the front line of combatting organised immigration crime.