The brother of "the best smuggler" was caught out by voice notes found on his phone after his arrest. Anjan Ahmadi worked with his brother and people smuggling kingpin Amanj Hasan Zada who led a criminal network of smugglers who would move people from Turkey into mainland Europe and onto the UK.
An investigation from the National Crime Agency (NCA) found that the international gang used social media to advertise their services. Evidence from the agency showed that 27-year-ol Ahmadi played a crucial role in the his brother's crime group as he stayed in contact with migrants and booked travel tickets for different legs of their journey.
Zada was arrested at his home in Preston in May last year which he shared with Ahmadi, of Stefano Road, Preston, who also acted as his driver.
Conversations recorded by NCA officers showed how the pair were in touch with a number of smugglers in Europe and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI).
Officers then arrested Ahmadi in July 2024 after evidence was recovered implicating him in the gang. After investigators arrested him, voice note conversations on his phone with an individual wanting to travel to the UK with his relatives were found.
In the voice notes the individual said he wanted to travel "not by dinghy" and Ahmadi referred the man to a different smuggler who dealt with lorries, telling him to "go with my name".
Ahmadi pleaded guilty to facilitating illegal immigration to both the UK and EU, and following a hearing at Preston Crown Court today, October 27, he was 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."
His brother Zada was locked up for 17 years after the NCA linked him to three separate crossings made from France to the UK in November and December 2023.
Each crossing involved Kurdish migrants who had travelled thorough eastern Europe, into Germany, Belgium and then France.
NCA officers also found a video on YouTube, thought to have been recorded in Iraq in 2021, showing Zada at a a party where musicians had been singing a song in Kurdish feting him as "the best smuggler" and saying "all other smugglers have learned from him" as he threw cash at them and fired a gun in the air.
After Zada's conviction, the NCA supported law enforcement in the region of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq in an operation which saw a further three members of the network arrested in Sulaymaniyah in January 2025.
These consisted of 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."