A convicted people smuggler faces extradition after police arrested him in Elephant and Castle.
Officers swooped on Zeeshan Banghis, 20, at an address on New Kent Road, on December 18.
The Afghan national was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment by a court in Antwerp, Belgium last month.
He now faces being returned to Belgium to serve his sentence and extradition proceedings have commenced.
Banghis, also known as Bangash Zeeshan, is one of three Afghan men detained in a co-ordinated effort between the National Crime Agency (NCA) and Belgian police.
Ziarmal Khan (AKA Boxer Bhai), aged 24, was arrested on 6 December by MPS officers at Stansted Airport in relation to a domestic violence offence, and further arrested on behalf of the Belgians while in custody.
NCA officers also arrested Saifur Rahman Ahmedzai (AKA Raees Hamza), 23, at an address in Hemel Hempstead on Monday, December 30.
Prosecutors in Belgium say the trio’s gang helped organise the transport of migrants from Afghanistan through Iran, Turkey and the Balkans into western Europe, mainly France and Belgium.
Many would eventually be take small boats from northern France to the UK, with the gang suspected of transporting thousands of people this way.
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The NCA said the group also committed serious sexual offences against male migrant minors, including rape which they would video and use to blackmail the victims into criminality and further sexual abuse.
NCA investigators supported the Belgian investigation for around two years, supplying intelligence and evidence to the Belgian Federal Police around suspected members of the network.
Last month, a court in Antwerp convicted and sentenced the trio and 20 other members of the gang to a total of 170 years imprisonment, with sentences ranging from two to 18 years.
Eleven members were tried in their absence, including the three men arrested in the UK.
NCA Deputy Director Craig Turner said: “This operation shows that no matter where people smuggling gangs operate, we will find them and bring them to justice.
“These men were part of a network involved in illegally moving migrants across the globe, through Europe and eventually into northern Europe and the UK, profiting from the dangerous situations they put vulnerable people into as they were transported, and committing the most heinous sexual offences against them.”
Deportation?
I’ll only believe it when I see it.
Look back, over years, at the number of Criminals we’ve failed to export:
‘His Wife & twenty-five Kids, His Cat, His Dog and HIs Sick Ant, will all pine-away.’
And, especially, his Publicly Funded Legal Team.
The Support Industry that continues to soak-up huge amounts of Our Taxes, every year.
‘Well, Someone Has To Pay For My Porche.’