An Essex-based gang has been found guilty of smuggling Afghan migrants into the UK using a truck, following an investigation by the National Crime Agency (NCA).
Mark Youell, 69, from Clacton, came onto the radar of the NCA in July 2019 when he and accomplice Carl Bailey, 52, were seen by surveillance officers meeting up with Kent-based career criminal, Freddy Lawrence.
Lawrence, 59, from Folkestone, Kent, was the subject of another separate NCA investigation, which would later lead to him being given a seven-and-a-half-year sentence for people smuggling in January 2025.
The gang, who had been under surveillance since July 2019, had been in contact with father and son Rohit and Surjeet Chawla, from Hayes, to arrange the smuggling of a group of Afghan Sikh migrants.
The migrants were found in a lorry operated by the gang, which had travelled from Purfleet to France and returned via the Channel Tunnel to Folkestone. The lorry was stopped by the NCA and Police at Osterley Cricket Club on 7 September 2019, where 12 people, including one child, were discovered hiding in a specially constructed concealment behind a false bulkhead.
Phone evidence and a SIM card found in the lorry linked the Chawlas to the smuggling operation.
Bailey pleaded guilty to conspiring to facilitate illegal immigration and money laundering, but the other members of the gang denied the charge.
On 27 May, following a trial at the Old Bailey, a jury found Youell guilty of conspiring to facilitate illegal immigration and money laundering. Last Wednesday (3 June) the jury found Chawla and Brewer guilty of conspiring to facilitate illegal immigration.
Surjeet Chawla died in December 2022, before he could stand trial.
