Men behind 'Tripadvisor for people smugglers' jailed for 19 years

Men behind 'Tripadvisor for people smugglers' jailed14 minutes agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleWyre DaviesBBC Wales InvestigatesNCADilshad Shamo and Ali Khdir ran the huge people smuggling oepration from their car wash business in CaerphillyTwo men who ran a huge people-smuggling operation from a car wash have been sentenced to 19 years each in prison. Dilshad Shamo, 41, and Ali Khdir, 40, organised the smuggling of about 100 migrants to Europe weekly for two years, labelled a "Tripadvisor for people smugglers".They worked from an otherwise legitimate carwash business in Caerphilly, south Wales, and financed the scheme using a traditional Middle Eastern money-transfer system called Hawala banking.After previously pleading guilty partway through a trial, they appeared at Cardiff Crown Court for sentencing this week, with a judge describing them as "having leading roles in a sophisticated and successful" operation.Shamo and Khdir were both originally from Iraqi Kurdistan but were living and working legally in the UK. After they came to the attention of the National Crime Agency (NCA), undercover investigators and surveillance officers gathered hundreds of hours of evidence based largely around their carwash business.An NCA spokesperson said Shamo and Khdir were part of "a larger organised crime group" and were "facilitating the movement of migrants from Iraq, Iran and Syria through Belarus, Moldova and Bosnia and ending in Italy, Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Germany and France".They offered a multi-tier service to potential migrants with varying levels of "service" and transport along the route to Europe, depending on the price paid.Migrants were encouraged to rate their journeys in videos filmed inside lorries or boats or via social media channels including Telegram and TikTok."How was the route, guys?" a man asked in one clip, as someone at the back of the lorry gave a thumbs-up.&qu...