LONDON: A manhunt has been launched by British and Belgian police to find a crime boss who attempted to smuggle more than 100 migrants across the English Channel.
Barzan Kamal Majeed, given the nickname “Scorpion” due to his WhatsApp avatar, failed to appear in court for a sentencing hearing in Bruges last month, and has been given 10 years in prison and fined almost EUR1 million ($1.002 million) in absentia.
Majeed, an Iraqi national who moved to Nottingham in the UK in 2013 but was deported two years later, is being tracked by officers from the British National Crime Agency and Belgian police.
Dutch and French investigators also assisted in the initial investigation into Majeed’s criminal gang and their people-smuggling operation, which found 31 separate attempts to smuggle migrants into the UK between July 2018 and Nov. 2019 using small boats, lorries and shipping containers.
Majeed’s accomplice, Nzar Jabar Mohamad, was given a 10-year prison sentence at a British court in Oct. 2021 after admitting attempting to bring 21 migrants into the UK.
Other members of the gang were also tried this year in Belgium, and convicted and jailed for a total of 32 years.
Martin Clarke, from the NCA, said: “These convictions represent the destruction of the UK and international arms of this organized crime group, which preyed on the desperation of migrants seeking to cross the Channel.
“The information we gathered following Mohamad’s arrest was crucial to the success of the Belgian investigation.
“It shows that organized immigration crime networks usually cross international boundaries, meaning international cooperation is essential to tackling them.
“I would appeal to anyone, anywhere, who has information about where Majeed might be to contact us or the Belgian authorities immediately.
“Although he was sentenced in his absence, true justice will only be achieved when he is back on Belgian soil to serve his jail term.”
