Vietnamese migrants were found in the back of a lorry carrying tyres. — Photos courtesy of the National Crime Agency

HÀ NỘI — Two men who tried to smuggle ten Vietnamese people into the UK in the back of a lorry, just months after 39 migrants died making a similar crossing, have been jailed.

Eoin Nolan, 53, and Daniel Loughran, 36, were part of a people smuggling gang who conspired to move ten migrants, including eight children, from Belgium to the UK on March 5, 2020.

The gang are believed to have charged each migrant around VNĐ532 million (US$20,000) for the crossing where they would be hidden in a dummy load in the back of a lorry until arrival in the UK.

Nolan and Loughran were arrested sentenced after a National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation and convicted of conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration following a five-week trial at Maidstone Crown Court on February 6.

They were sentenced at the same court on Thursday, September 4.

Daniel Loughran, 36, was part of a people smuggling gang who conspired to move ten migrants, including eight children, from Belgium to the UK on 5 March 2020.

Loughran was sentenced to five years and six months in prison and Nolan was sentenced to four years in prison.

Nolan, living in Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, spent hours attempting to source a driver for the smuggling attempt and eventually arranged for Duncan McLaughlin, 64, from Glasgow, to travel from Scotland to Kent to pick up and HGV and take a ferry to France.

There, he met the migrants at a predetermined rendezvous point in the Rue de Forts area of France and they were given instructions to hide in an unsteady load of used tyres before being driven from France to Zeebrugge in Belgium where they would have been loaded onto a ferry destined for Purfleet, England.

Instead, the Belgian authorities, working with the NCA, tracked the lorry and intercepted the trailer at a parking area in Gentbrugge, Belgium, before the smuggling could continue to the UK.

Eoin Nolan, 53, was sentenced to four years in prison.

The migrants had already paid $200,000 to make the crossing, which has never been recovered.

NCA investigators found that Loughran, who was based in Armagh, Northern Ireland, had been working closely with Wayne Sherlock, 44, originally from County Meath but living in Dover in Kent.

The pair arranged for an HGV tractor unit to be driven from Armagh to Dublin, before boarding a ferry to Holyhead and onwards to Kent the day before the smuggling took place.

Sherlock previously pleaded guilty for his role in the conspiracy in June 2020 and was sentenced to four years' imprisonment.

Wayne Sherlock was jailed for his role in the conspiracy in 2022.

Throughout the trip, McLaughlin was in close contact with Nolan to ensure the migrants were collected on time.

The group were in constant conversation, planning routes, logistics and how the migrants should enter and hide in the vehicle. They included: "might want to load them [the migrants] in the dark boss" and "yes with the wheels inside they can get in and sleep". In another chain, they said "they need to stay still and wait till doors open and we shout out".

McLaughlin was arrested close to Bruges in March 2020 in a joint operation with the NCA and Belgian police. He was bailed and fled Belgium, being convicted in his absence in October 2021 and sentenced to 37 months imprisonment and a $102,000 fine.

NCA Branch Commander David Cunningham said: "Nolan and Loughran's organised crime group continued to relentlessly pursue making this crossing a success, despite it being just months after the tragic deaths of 39 migrants who had tried to make a similar journey.

"We saw in their communications that they faced issues finding a driver to smuggle the migrants but persisted anyway, despite the danger involved. They operated as a well-oiled machine and took £150,000 ($200,000) from these vulnerable migrants, most of whom were children, for their own pure greed.

"The group loaded old tyres to the trailer for the sole purpose of appearing to be a legitimate delivery and the migrants were told to hide within them, despite them being unstable and the potential for serious injury or worse if the journey had continued.

"The NCA will continue to tackle organised immigration crime and in our work with partners to bring criminal gangs like those Nolan and Loughran were involved in to justice."

Tarika Jayaratne, of the Crown Prosecution Service, added: "The two defendants in this case made significant efforts to avoid and undermine the checks and controls we have on immigration at our borders. They also put the safety and wellbeing of the vulnerable children they were smuggling at risk for profit.

"The CPS is continuing to work with law enforcement partners to discourage, disrupt and dismantle this exploitative trade through prosecutions and cross-border collaboration."

Just five months before this attempted crossing, the bodies of 39 Vietnamese nationals, 31 men and eight women, were found in the trailer of an articulated refrigerator lorry in Grays, Essex, United Kingdom.

Eleven people were convicted of crimes related to the incident in the UK and a further 19 were jailed in Belgium. — VNS