Boastful people smuggler who described himself as ‘the best’ is jailed for 17 years
A PEOPLE smuggler who described himself as “the best” was jailed for 17 years yesterday.
It came as four others were also caged for bringing illegal migrants into the country
Amanj Hasan Zada, 34, promoted his small boat crossings in videos and messages on Facebook.
A YouTube clip showed the Iranian singing along at a party as musicians laud him as “the best smuggler”.
Revellers can be heard shoutimg: “All the smugglers have learned from him, Amanj is number one”.
The National Crime Agency linked him to three Channel crossings but said he was probably involved in many more.
Zada, from Preston, was convicted at the city’s crown court.
Meanwhile, Josh Mallaburn, 33, and Liam Cronin, 34, both from Hemel Hempstead, Herts, were jailed for three years at Maidstone crown court, Kent.
They tried to smuggle two adults and three children through the Channel Tunnel in their van in 2018.
And Iranian Jalal Saraei Adeh, 45, and Polish Daniel Belza, 48, were also jailed at Croydon crown court for three and five years.
They were jailed for using fake IDs to smuggle at least 14 migrants onto 12 flights to the UK in 2022.