Brother of “the best smuggler” jailed for being part of international people smuggling network

A man believed to be the brother of a people smuggling kingpin caught following an investigation by the National Crime Agency has been jailed for more than five-and-a-half years for helping him transport people to the UK.

Anjan Ahmadi, 27, of Stefano Road, Preston, worked with Amanj Hasan Zada, who headed up a criminal network of smugglers moving people from Turkey into mainland Europe and then onwards to the UK.

The international gang used social media to advertise their services to would-be migrants.

Evidence found by NCA investigators showed that Ahmadi played a critical role in Zada’s crime group, staying in contact with migrants and booking travel tickets for legs of their journey.

Zada was arrested in May 2024 at his home in Preston, which he shared with Ahmadi, who also acted as his driver.

Conversations recorded by NCA officers showed the pair were in contact with a number of other smugglers in Europe and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI).

Ahmadi was arrested in July 2024 after evidence was recovered implicating him in the gang.

Following his arrest investigators found a voice notes conversation on his phone with an individual who wanted to travel to the UK with his relatives, but “not by dinghy”. Ahmadi referred the man to another people smuggler who dealt with lorries, saying “go with my name”.

He eventually pleaded guilty to facilitating illegal immigration to both the UK and EU, and following a hearing at Preston Crown Court, he was today, Monday 27 October, sentenced to five years and seven months in prison.

NCA Branch Commander Martin Clarke said: “Ahmadi played a crucial role in Zada’s criminal network, assisting him in moving people into the EU and then to the UK in small boats.

“Evidence gathered by the NCA showed Ahmadi acted as right-hand man to Zada, arranging illegal transportation across borders, communicating with migrants and other smugglers.

“These men didn’t care about the risks those they were moving faced, they just saw them as a commodity to be profited from and preyed upon their desperation.

“In this case we have also been able to take our investigation upstream, working with partners in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq to target other members of the network.”

In November 2024 Zada was jailed for 17 years after investigators were able to link 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.

A video, found on YouTube by the NCA and thought to have been recorded in Iraq in 2021, showed Zada 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.

Following Zada’s conviction the NCA supported law enforcement in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq in an operation which saw another three members of the network arrested in Sulaymaniyah in January 2025.

They included two other people smugglers and a Hawala banker who had processed financial transactions for the gang.

Branch Commander Martin Clarke added: “This investigation has demonstrated how the NCA is targeting people smugglers at every step, from their operations in the UK right the way back to source countries where they previously thought they were untouchable.

“We have a global reach. Disrupting and dismantling people smuggling gangs like this is a priority for the NCA, and we are determined to do all we can to stop them.”