An Iraqi national faces deportation over the part he played in a “dangerous” people smuggling ring which promised to bring illegal migrants across the Channel.
Ramal Briem, 33, referred to migrants as “chickens” in messages about smuggling illegal immigrants into the UK.
The father from Wolverhampton, reportedly plotted to smuggle migrants across Europe and into Britain for a fee of £1,500 per person.
Described as an “organised criminal, with others working for him”, Briem received “significant financial remuneration”, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard.
Prosecutor Cathlyn Orchard said: “He is an established people smuggler.”
He moved migrants from Vietnam across eastern Europe on work visas, then to the “jungles” near Dunkirk and Calais.
Briem has now been told he faces a lengthy stretch behind bars and could be deported.
He admitted conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration, insisting that he believed he was involved with the “sale of cigarettes”. However, his basis was not accepted by the Crown Prosecution Service.
At the time Briem was charged in July 2024, The National Crime Agency’s senior investigating officer Saju Sasikumar, said: “This is part of an ongoing investigation into organised immigration crime.
“People smugglers operate for profit without concern for the safety of those they transport, whether that be in the backs of lorries or in small boats.
“This is why dismantling and disrupting the networks involved remains a priority for the NCA.”
Those he assisted with illegal breach onto UK soil would travel on small boats and be greeted by the Home Office, where they were moved into hotels, before “disappearing” into the Vietnamese community.
The National Crime Agency made the initial arrest. | NCA
All the migrants Briem smuggled were thought to be Vietnamese, with more than 1,000 names seen on a ledger seized by police.
Briem was arrested by the National Crime Agency after police found messages between him and the alleged head of an organised crime group.
The court heard Briem was in contact with a French phone number in March 2024 shortly before his initial arrest, where the number was tracked travelling into the UK on a lorry registered in the Netherlands.
When the lorry stopped in Staffordshire, male migrants ran from the back, with Briem telling the court he was living in Wolverhampton with his partner and children at the time.
Briem spoke at the trial of issue on Monday, which happens after a defendant has pleaded guilty but disagrees with the prosecution’s version of events.
During these trials a judge sits without a jury to resolve these specific factual disputes.
It was here that Briem admitted conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration, and that he “wanted to act as a facilitator”, agreeing that what he called “chickens” were people.
Judge Andrew Lockhart KC said he rejected Briem’s version of events and found that he was at the “heart” of the enterprise, working as a “facilitator” moving migrants across the continent.
He ruled that Briem, who had no previous convictions, “has not told one iota of the truth here today”.
Briem was remanded in custody and will be sentenced on March 26.
