Two foreign nationals have been jailed for attempting to smuggle almost 50 people out of the UK in lorries.
Marius Bajenaru, 44, and Sorin-Costinel Ivan, 46, both from Romania, were arrested by the National Crime Agency (NCA) on September 18.
Bajenaru had 17 migrants concealed in the rear of his Romanian registered panel van and almost £4,000 in cash in a black plastic bag in the cab.
Ivan had 32 people, mostly Bangladeshi nationals, in the trailer of his HGV.
Three bundles of cash totalling £9,950 were found in the cab of his lorry.
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The pair were trying to cross the Channel to France. Undocumented people are smuggled out of the UK because they can’t use official channels to travel or return home.
Bajenaru made a full confession in interviews with NCA investigators.
He admitted he collected the migrants from a layby on the A20 near Ashford, in Kent, and stood to be paid around £200 for each person he smuggled.
Ivan also admitted having visited a layby on the A20 near Ashford but initially denied any knowledge of the migrants in his trailer.
He later changed his plea and admitted a charge of facilitating illegal immigration.
Both men were sentenced at Canterbury Crown Court on Tuesday, November 25.
Ivan was jailed for three years and four months, while Bajenaru got two years and eight months in prison.
John Turner, senior investigating officer at the National Crime Agency, said: ‘People smuggling gangs will pitch this as a low-risk way of making extra money to drivers, but as this case shows it is anything but.
‘Those caught face potentially life-changing prison sentences.
‘The criminal networks involved in this type of offending show no regard for the safety of those they transport, treating people as commodities.
‘Working with partners we are doing all we can to disrupt and dismantle their operations.’
It comes just a few weeks after the NCA warned that organised crime groups are actively recruiting professional drivers to smuggle people both ways across the Channel in their vehicles.
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