Amanj Hasan Zada, 34, was found guilty of three people smuggling charges
A 34-year-old Iranian national who organised cross-Channel small boat crossings from his home in Lancashire, has been found guilty of people smuggling charges. Amanj Hasan Zada, of Stefano Road in Preston, was convicted following a two-week trial at Preston Crown Court on November 8.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) linked him to three separate crossings made from France to the UK in November and December 2023. Each involved Kurdish migrants who had travelled through eastern Europe, into Germany, Belgium and then France.
Known as Amanj Zaman by those he smuggled, Zada advertised his services on social media, sometimes using videos of those he had successfully smuggled thanking him for his help. One such video showed a group of men on a boat to Italy praising him.
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Another video, thought to have been recorded in Iraq in 2021, showed him at a party with musicians singing a song in Kurdish feting him as “the best smuggler”, saying “all the other smugglers have learned from him”, while he throws cash at them and fires a gun in the air in celebration.
NCA officers were able to record conversations he had with other smugglers, discussing movements of migrants, locations and successful crossings. Following Zada’s arrest in May 2024 his phone was seized. Analysis showed it was linked to a number of social media accounts used to post material, and phone numbers advertised on them.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) has today confirmed the conviction of Amanj Hasan Zada, who ran a sophisticated people-smuggling operation. His direct involvement with migrants arriving by boats in 2023 was exposed when travel tickets for one individual were discovered on his phone.
Charged with three counts of facilitating illegal immigration, Zada faced trial at Preston Crown Court where he was found guilty on all charges and is slated for sentencing later today. NCA Branch Commander Martin Clarke commented on the case: “Amanj Hasan Zada ran a sophisticated people smuggling enterprise, using social media to advertise his services.”
He added: “While we have uncovered evidence directly linking him to three specific crossings, there is no doubt in my mind that he was likely to have been involved in many more.”
Clarke didn’t mince words about Zada’s motivations: “For him it was all about profit, and he had no issues with putting people in life threatening situations as long as he got paid.”
Clarke highlighted the danger posed by such criminals: “People smugglers like him risk lives, which is why we are determined to do all we can to stop them, wherever they operate.”
In their ongoing efforts to combat organised immigration crime, the NCA considers it a priority to put more resources into disrupting and dismantling criminal networks. Currently, the agency is sinking its teeth into approximately 70 ongoing investigations into the most harmful and elusive targets in organised immigration crime or human trafficking, including those at the summit of the NCA’s priority list.
The NCA is committed to targeting and disrupting organised crime groups at every stage of the route, from source countries, through transit countries, near the UK border in France and Belgium, and those operating within the UK itself.
