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Saturday, 1 February 2014 00:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Five members of a criminal gang who smuggled Sri Lankans into the UK from France have been jailed for a total of 23 years.
The men, four Sri Lankans and one British national, were caught after a Home Office led investigation, supported by Kent Police, the National Crime Agency (NCA), Europol and French, German and Swiss law enforcement agencies.
The gang helped Sri Lankan illegal immigrants attempting to reach the UK by smuggling them in vehicles through the Channel ports.
The court heard how the five men charged their Sri Lankan clients around £ 4,500 each for the service. Many of the smuggling attempts were foiled by Border Force officers who discovered stowaways hiding in vehicles stopped at ports including Calais, 
Dunkerque, Coquelles and Dover.
Of those who reached the UK, some would also travel onwards from the UK to North America using falsified documents. Investigations are ongoing to find the individuals who entered the UK illegally.
On Wednesday, 29 January, at Maidstone Crown Court, the gang’s ringleader, 37-year-old Sudharsan Jeyakodi, of Bradley Road, Luton, was jailed for five years and four months. His accomplices Kamalanesan Kandiah, 39, Chubramanian Vignarajah, 42, British national Amarjit Mudhar, 46, and John Anes Soundaranayagam Uvais, 41, were jailed for five years, three years and four months, four years and eight months and five years respectively.
David Fairclough from Home Office Immigration Enforcement - Criminal Investigations said:
“This international organised crime gang conspired to smuggle desperate people into the UK purely for their own financial gain. They were major players in bringing Sri Lankan nationals to the UK illegally but thanks to the cooperation of agencies across Europe they have been stopped.
People smuggling is a serious crime, which preys on some of societys most vulnerable people. This investigation demonstrates that we will stop at nothing to track down those responsible, no matter where they are in the world.
Jeyakodi and Vignarajah, of Aurelia Road, Croydon, pleaded guilty to conspiring to facilitate illegal immigration in August last year. Kandiah, of Balmoral Drive, Hayes, London, Mudhar, of Brick Lane, Northolt, London, and Uvais of Mitcham Road, East Ham, London, were found guilty of the same charge on 17 January following an eight week trial.
Kandiah, Mudhar and Vignarajah were arrested in the UK in May last year when officers from the Home Office Criminal Investigations team carried out a series of raids in London, Luton, Essex, France and Germany.
Jeyakodi and Uvais were arrested by police in Zurich, Switzerland, in June last year. Extradition warrants were obtained and specialist officers from the Home Office flew out to Switzerland to bring the pair back to the UK.
Arrests are carried out by trained immigration officers who carry out operations at businesses and private addresses, acting on intelligence received from the public and other sources. All intelligence is protected.
Net migration has fallen by a third since its peak in 2010 showing the Home Office is continuing to bring immigration back under control. The new Immigration Bill will reduce the pull factors to this country and make it easier to remove people with no right to be here.
On Tuesday 26 March 2013 the Home Secretary announced that the UK Border Agency will be replaced by two new immigration commands within the Home Office; an immigration and visa service and an immigration law enforcement organisation. These changes came into effect on Monday 1 April 2013.
The investigation involved the French DRPP (Direction du Renseignement de la Prefecture de Police de Paris) and the German Federal Police (Bundespolizei).
