One of Europe’s most notorious people smugglers is finally behind bars – two years after the Mail tipped off police about his whereabouts on the run.
Barzan Kamal Majeed masterminded an organised crime group that smuggled an estimated 10,000 migrants across the English Channel over six years.
Nicknamed Scorpion, the human trafficker was arrested in Iraq on Monday after being exposed in a BBC investigation when he boasted to a reporter that ’95 to 99 per cent’ of illegal crossings to the UK since 2016 could be linked to him.
‘Maybe a thousand, maybe 10,000 (people). I don’t know, I didn’t count,’ Majeed told Radio 4.
Majeed was first arrested in Iraq last year following an investigation by this newspaper who tipped off Britain’s National Crime Agency about his whereabouts and provided Belgium police with his address, phone number and social media account in December 2022. The information led to his arrest last May in Iraq.
Barzan Kamal Majeed (pictured) masterminded an organised crime group that smuggled an estimated 10,000 migrants across the English Channel
Majeed was first arrested in Iraq last year following an investigation by this newspaper who tipped off Britain’s National Crime Agency about his whereabouts
But despite being one of Europe’s most wanted criminals, sentenced to ten years in a Belgium court for people smuggling, Majeed was mysteriously released from custody a short time later and promptly vanished again.
The trail then went cold until he was tracked down by the BBC who finally spurred the Kurdistan region’s security forces in northern Iraq into action this week. Between 2016 and 2021, Scorpion’s gang is believed to have controlled much of the people smuggling between Europe and the UK.
At the age of 20, the Kurdish Iraqi first arrived in Britain smuggled in the back of a lorry in 2006.
Despite being refused leave to remain a year later, he stayed in the UK working as a mechanic in Nottingham. Majeed was later deported to Iraq in 2015 after being convicted for gun and drug offences. There, he became the leader of a huge people smuggling operation. UK Border Force and police first identified Majeed as a key player in 2016 after inspecting the mobile phones of migrants arriving illegally in the UK.
Majeed was tried in a Belgian court and convicted of 121 counts of people-smuggling
The BBC has since uncovered evidence that his smuggling gang were able to bribe Iraqi officials into issuing false visas so migrants could travel to Turkey. Pictured an inflatable dinghy bringing migrants across the Channel
Majeed was tried in a Belgian court and convicted of 121 counts of people-smuggling.
In November 2022, he was sentenced to ten years in jail and fined €968,000 (£834,000), but he went on the run. A month later the Mail learnt of his whereabouts in Turkey. Although he was subsequently held in Iraq in May 2023, Majeed was released from custody just days later with no explanation given.
The BBC has since uncovered evidence that his smuggling gang were able to bribe Iraqi officials into issuing false visas so migrants could travel to Turkey.
This week a senior member of the Kurdistan regional government suggested he may now be prosecuted. An official said: ‘We are looking at charges against him here, and then we will be discussing with European police who want to question him.’
