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Murder Probe Launched After 39 Bodies Found Inside Lorry in Essex UK

A 25-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after 39 people were found dead at Waterglade Industrial Park in Grays

Daily Mirror UK, 23 OCT 2019.




A lorry containing 39 bodies was found on the industrial estate (Image: Thurrock Gazette / SWNS)


A murder probe has been launched after 39 dead bodies - including a teenager - were discovered in a lorry in Essex.

Emergency services rushed to the Waterglade Industrial Park in Grays at around 1.40am this morning.

When they arrived they found the bodies of 39 people in the back of the vehicle.

It's believed the victims are 38 adults and one teenager, but it's unclear who they are or exactly how they came into the country.

The horrific find has sparked one of the biggest murder investigations in British history.

Police believe the vehicle was travelling from Bulgaria and entered the UK three days ago via Holyhead in Wales, one of the main port for ferries from Ireland.

A 25-year-old-man from Northern Ireland has been arrested on suspicion of murder.

The crime scene is just a short distance from intu Lakeside shopping centre and the M25 Dartford Crossing.

Chief Superintendent Andrew Mariner said: "This is a tragic incident where a large number of people have lost their lives. Our enquiries are ongoing to establish what has happened.

"We are in the process of identifying the victims, however I anticipate that this could be a lengthy process.




Aerial footage shows the cordoned off scene

"We believe the lorry is from Bulgaria and entered the country at Holyhead on Saturday 19 October and we are working closely with our partners to investigate.

"We have arrested the lorry driver in connection with the incident who remains in police custody as our enquiries continue. I appreciate this cordon is going to disrupt the activity of local businesses in the area and we will work to ensure that disruption is kept as short as possible.

"We are working with Thurrock Council to mitigate against any impact our investigation scene will have locally."


Parts of the industrial estate has been closed off as the investigation continues

In a tweet published shortly before 10.30am Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: "I’m appalled by this tragic incident in Essex.

"I am receiving regular updates from the Home Office & will work closely with Essex Police as we establish exactly what has happened. My thoughts are with all those who lost their lives & their loved ones."

Glen Freeland, from GSF Car Parts which is close to where the bodies were found, said staff could not access the shop on Eastern Avenue on Wednesday morning.

"The manager went to get into work this morning and it was cordoned off and we've been moved to a different area," Mr Freeland said.

"All we know is they found the bodies in the back of a lorry.

"It was a bit of a shock but we're not 100 per cent sure of what's happened."

A restaurant worker in the industrial estate, who did not want to be named, said: "There's a lot of police and forensics.

"We've just seen what has been said online. It's awful.

"We thought maybe someone had broken into a lorry, but it's just awful."
Police expect the process of identifying the victims will be a lengthy one

Paige Wade was driving past the industrial park at 4.15am on the way home from work.

She told the PA news agency: "I honestly didn't see much, I had just finished work while driving up Motherwell Way and all you could see was blue flashing lights, as I was driving past there was police tape to cordon off the start of eastern avenue.

"I knew it was serious because of how many police cars and ambulances were there, but the police had parked their cars across the whole access of the road so you couldn't see anything.

"There's always lorries around there as they park up there for the night, I couldn't say whether I did or didn't see the actual lorry in question."




The bodies were found in an industrial park in Grays


A cordon has been put in place and access to and from the Waterglade Industrial Park remains closed.

Nine police cars and fifteen police officers have been stationed at the scene, which is close to the shopping location Lakeside.

Charlie Duggins-Jones described travelling past the scene on the way to work this morning.

"When I saw that the road wasn’t just closed off to access, but curtained off from view, I knew it would be something bad, but not this awful," he said.

"It’s incredibly shocking being so close to where you work, our whole industrial site is talking about it!

"It’s the last thing you expect to find when you come to work in the morning."

A statement regarding the discovery will be delivered by DCC Pippa Mills at Grays Police Station at 11.30am this morning.

Home Secretary Priti Patel tweeted: "Shocked & saddened by this utterly tragic incident in Grays.

"Essex Police has arrested an individual and we must give them the space to conduct their investigations."




Grays sits on the River Thames to the east of London


Ferries sail out of Holyhead port to Dublin in Ireland.

It is the principal link for road vehicles to get from England and Wales to Ireland.
More than two million people travel through the port each year, which is operated by Stena Line Ports Ltd.

Back in June 2000 the bodies of 58 Chinese immigrants were found in a lorry in Dover.


A Dutch driver was jailed the following year over their manslaughter.






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Horrifying Rise of Mother of all Snakeheads, Sister Ping, Started the Triad Gang Hunted for Deaths of 39 Migrants

Chinese Ruthless Triad Smuggling Gangs are thought to be behind the tragic deaths of 39 migrants found in a lorry at Waterglade Industrial Park in Essex

Daily Mirror UK, 25 OCT 2019.





Sister Ping was known as the 'mother of the snakeheads' died in prison (Image: FBI)


They had fled their home country in the hope of a better life in the UK.

But the dreams of 31 men and eight women ended in tragedy when their bodies were found in the back of a frozen lorry in Essex.

Lorry driver Mo Robinson is being questioned by police after the bodies were found in the truck he was driving.

They will have died in agony after making the arduous 5,000 mile journey from their homeland in a desperate bid to escape their poverty-stricken lives.

It is now feared they came to Britain with help from the Snakeheads, notorious people-smugglers with links to *ruthless Triad gangsters in China.




A murder probe was launched after the bodies were found at 1.40am on Wednesday


The gangs are said to tout the streets for victims, enticing them with the promise of a better life before charging thousands of pounds to take treacherous trips to the West in a “fly-drive” service costing £30,000.

One of the leaders of this terrifying gang was Jing Ping Chen, known as Sister Ping.

She was known as one of the most fearsome gang leaders across Europe and earned to nickname of 'mother of all snakeheads'.

Sister Ping made millions by transporting desperate people in grim conditions to the UK.

The people who make the decision to travel are usually flown from the Fujian region of China to Europe, all expenses paid, then placed in accommodation.

They are then placed in goods lorries and driven in darkness, without food, ventilation, water or toilet facilities.

Chillingly, a source close to the gangs has said the gang believed to be behind the journey of death will feel no shame about the deaths of 39 people.

However, they will be furious they have lost money because none of those transported arrived alive.

The source, who cannot be identified for her own safety, said: "This is not a crime in Chinese culture, this is an opportunity.

"It is an agreement between the Snakeheads and their customers. They are willing, they feel no shame in breaking the law.

“There is a pride that they get out of Fujian and have a chance of a good life with good money in places like Northern Ireland, England, Scotland where there are good benefits.

"Yes the journey is difficult, it is uncomfortable and it is frightening, but the gamble is normally worth it.

"The chances of a good life is worth the risk. In this case it didn’t work. Something went wrong but the Snakeheads will just go again."

While China's economy is booming as many as 30million people still live in abject poverty.And the snakehead gangs take full advantage of those who crave a better life.

Hundreds of thousands of people are believed to have been smuggled out of China.

A spokesman for the National Criminal Intelligence Service told:

"The top snakeheads control the facilitation process from end to end.

"They have contacts in China, the UK and at every stop along the route."

Despite the terrifying conditions the migrants have to face to get to the UK, it is a price many are willing to pay.

The source close to the gang said: "These customers get paid as little as £200 a month in China and live in horrible conditions.






Security guards have explained how the lorry may have slipped through the port's security checks (Image: Humphrey Nemar)


"In the UK, they can get £2,000 a month in a job with no responsibilities, get benefits, get married and live a decent life.

“These people who died in this container had hopes of a future in a good country. Another group will be waiting for their chance to get on a lorry now somewhere in Europe.

“This will not put them off. The plan normally works. The Snakeheads have contacts everywhere.

"They are *practical people, not emotional. They have lost £1.2million in *earnings in this. So they will go again.”

Before this tragedy, the snakeheads gang was also linked to the deaths of 58 Chines people whose bodies were found in an airtight truck at Dover in 2000.

Sister Ping's gang was believed to the thugs behind the tragedy.
Born into poverty in a poor farming village in her native China in 1949, Ping was still a baby when the People's Republic was created.

When she was 15, Ping's father went to work in America as a merchant marine crewman, where he remained for 13 years, sending money home to his family in China.

He was deported after working a series of jobs as a dish washer and when he returned home, he started a people smuggling business, something his daughter would pick up just a few years later.

After marrying, Ping moved to Hong King with her husband and had three sons.




A police officer close to where the lorry was found in Grays (Image: REUTERS)


She worked her way up the social ladder and became a successful businesswoman with her own factory in her native China.

But this was not enough for the ambitious mother and in 1981 she got a job as a nanny in New York.

She and her husband opened a shop which sold goods for homesick Chinese immigrants.

By the early 80s Ping realised there was money to be made smuggling people from their impoverished lives in China to wealthy America.

Initially running her people smuggling firm as a one woman operation, she charged upwards of £27,000 to transport people from China to the US.

Using commercial airlines and forged travel documents, the scheme was a huge success.

And business really boomed after the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989.

However, Ping's horrific trading had caught the attention of the authorities and she was jailed for six months in that year following a police sting at Tornoto Airport.

Her time in prison, where she was isolated from other inmates as she spoke little English, seemed to fuel her ambition and after her release she stepped up her vile trade.

Ping now had scores of people working for her around the world who would move her human cargo and then hold them hostage until her huge fees were paid and they could be released.



This is a list of the names of people who paid their condolences to Ping following her death (Image: New York Times / Redux / eyevine)


Even if they managed to arrive safely in the US, more horror awaited the terrified migrants.

Ping, at barely 5ft tall, had paid for thugs for hire from the Fuk Ching, which was know as Chinatown's most brutal gang.

Her reputation for brutality and the scale of her operation was immense, she was the world's most norotious snakehead as was known as the 'mother' of the organisation.

By 1997, using violence and threats, Ping had virtually no competition when it came to people smuggling.

She continued her vile business in Rotterdam, where her boyfriend was the feared head of the Triad gang in the city.





Zhang Yuanjing, whose passage to New York from China in 1989 was arranged by Cheng Chui Ping (Image: New York Times / Redux / eyevine)


It meant she had access to the most vicious thugs imaginable, who would torture those who stood in her way.

She also treated rivals with utter brutality.

When a fellow gang leader tried to muscle into her territory, she invited him to dinner before having him beaten with a hammer and shot in both legs.

By now, Ping's operation was vast.

She had a fleet of eight cars, seven safe houses and dozens of people on her payroll.

Her overheads were estimated to be around £35,000 a month but Ping was still amassing a huge fortune believed to be as high as £40million.

But the net was closing in on what has been described by the US Justice Department as "one of the first and ultimately, most successful, alien smugglers of all time".

For five years the FBI were on her trail but as she was believed to now be living in China, which has no extradition treaty with the US, could not be arrested.

Finally Interpol had the breakthrough they were waiting for in 2000.

After constantly searching plane pasenger lists travelling between Hong Kong and New York, the came across Ping's son's name.

Officers were waiting at Hong Kong airport and took her into custody.

Ping fought extradition for three years but was finally sent to the US and put on trial in 2005.

She faced charges of conspiring to commit alien smuggling, hostage taking, money laundering and trafficking in ransom proceeds.

Ping was sentenced to 35 years in prison.

Ten years after she was first locked up, Ping said in an interview:

"Being locked up for over 10 years allowed me to think about my previous life, my heart calmed down and I started to feel that jail was the safest place


Read More;

Desperate migrants describe 'death stench' and screams inside pitch black lorries

Essex lorry deaths: Desperate victims 'paid £30k' for 'fly-drive' journey to UK

Chinese 'snakehead' gang hunted over deaths of 39 migrants in Essex lorry

FBI — The Case of the Snakehead Queen

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Four Essex UK Lorry People Smugglers Jailed for 78yrs Over Killings of 39 Migrants

The 39 Vietnamese migrants, including two aged just 15, tried to break out of the sealed lorry trailer and sent heartbreaking goodbye messages to family before they ran out of air and were found dead in Grays, Essex

Daily Mirror UK, 24 JAN 2021.




Row by row from top left: Valentin Colota, Ronan Hughes. Eamonn Harrison, Christopher Kennedy, Maurice Robinson, Alexandru Ovidiu Hanga and Ghoerghe Nica


Four people-smugglers have been jailed for 78 years for the killings of 39 Vietnamese migrants who suffocated in an airtight lorry trailer that became a 40C "tomb".

Ringleaders Gheorghe Nica, 43, and Ronan Hughes, 41, and drivers Maurice Robinson, 26, and Eamonn Harrison, 24, were sentenced along with three other gang members on Friday.

Nica was given 27 years, Hughes was handed 20 years in prison, Harrison was sentenced to 18 years, and Robinson was jailed for 13 years and four months - all for 39 counts of manslaughter and a people-smuggling conspiracy.

Three others were jailed for a total of 14 years for lesser offences.

Mr Justice Sweeney told the defendants jailed for manslaughter they would serve two-thirds of the term in custody, instead of the usual half.

It comes 15 months after the bodies of 28 men, eight women and three children were found "closely packed" inside the sealed HGV container as steam poured from its doors in Grays, Essex.

During their harrowing final moments, some of the trapped migrants used a pole try to break out while others used their phones to send heartbreaking goodbye messages to their families as they ran out of air before reaching Britain.

A husband and wife, survived by two children aged six and four, were found dead holding hands and huddled together.

In his sentencing remarks at the Old Bailey in London, Mr Justice Sweeney said: “I have no doubt that, as asserted by the prosecution, the conspiracy was a sophisticated, long running and profitable one to smuggle mainly Vietnamese migrants across the channel.”

He said the migrants were transported in an airtight container with no means for escape and died an “excruciating death” as carbon dioxide levels soared and the temperature hit 40C while the container was at sea.

Mr Justice Sweeney said: “There were desperate attempts to contact the outside world by phone and to break through the roof of the container.

“All were to no avail and before the ship reached Purfleet (the victims) all died in what must have been an excruciatingly painful death.”




The 39 victims and their families had paid thousands to give them a better life in Britain (Image: PA)




Forensic officers examine Maurice Robinson's lorry after the bodies eere found (Image: REUTERS)




Some of the migrants used a pole in a desperate bid to break out of the trailer (Image: PA)




Inside the lorry trailer where the Vietnamese migrants were found dead (Image: PA)



He added: “The willingness of the victims to try and enter the country illegally provides no excuse for what happened to them.”

The judge also said: “The evidence shows that in just a fortnight there were four episodes of transportation involving in total over 80 migrants.

“Had they all arrived safely their value to the overall conspiracy would have been in the order of £800,000."

Robinson, of Craigavon, found the bodies of the migrants, aged between 15 and 44, when he pulled over in an industrial estate and opened one of the trailer's doors just after 1am on October 23, 2019.

He had collected the container from a port in Essex and was instructed by Hughes via Snapchat to "give them air quickly don't let them out". Robinson responded with a thumbs-up emoji.

The Old Bailey heard that victim Nguyen Tho Tuan, 28, told his wife, children and mother as he ran out of air: “It's Tuan. I am sorry. I cannot take care of you.

“I am sorry. I am sorry. I cannot breathe. I want to come back to my family. Have a good life.”

One of the people in the container was recorded on a mobile phone saying "I cannot breathe".

Nguyen Dinh Luong, 20, was also recorded saying: "I'm sorry. It's all my fault." A voice in the background then adds: "He's dead."

Pham Thi Tra My, 26, sent her mum a series of harrowing text messages telling her "I am dying, I can't breathe", and that she loved her.

The migrants agreed to pay up to £13,000 each for a "VIP" smuggling service that they and their families back in Vietnam had hoped would lead to a better life in the UK.

The greedy international crime ring stood to make £1 million that month alone smuggling people into Britain via the Channel Tunnel or by boat to Essex.

The network, led by Nica and Hughes, had been operating for at least 18 months and wasn't stopped despite repeatedly coming to the attention of authorities.

About 12 hours before their bodies were discovered, the 39 victims were crammed into an airtight lorry container to be shipped from Zeebrugge, Belgium, to Purfleet, Essex, in pitch black and sweltering conditions.

Harrison collected the victims in Bierne, France, and his trailer was loaded on to the Clementine ship which left Zeebrugge at about 4pm on October 22, 2019, docking at Purfleet shortly after midnight.

But the trailer became a "tomb" with the temperature reaching an “unbearable” 38.5C (101F) and the carbon dioxide inside the container reaching its toxic threshold about three hours before the doors were opened, the Old Bailey heard.

Robinson and Hughes, of Armagh, had admitted plotting to people smuggle and 39 counts of manslaughter.

Nica, of Basildon, Essex, and originally from Romania, and Harrison, from County Down, were found guilty of the same offences following a trial.

Lorry driver Christopher Kennedy, 24, of County Armagh, Valentin Calota, 38, from Birmingham, and Alexandru-Ovidiu Hanga, 28, were also sentenced on Friday for their roles in the smuggling ring.

Kennedy and Calota, who were found guilty of conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration, were jailed for seven and four years, respectively.

Hanga, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration, was handed three years.

Robinson was also sentenced for money laundering, having admitted taking dirty cash to Northern Ireland for Hughes.

The court had heard the operation was sophisticated, long-running and profitable, with the smugglers standing to make more than £1 million in October 2019 alone.

A total of seven smuggling trips were identified between May 2018 and October 23, 2019, although the court heard there were likely to have been more.

Migrants would board lorries at a remote location on the continent to be transported to Britain where they would be picked up by a fleet of smaller vehicles organised by Nica for transfer to a safe house until payment was received.

The fee was between £10,000 and £13,000, for the 'VIP route' in which the driver was aware of the presence of smuggled migrants inside the trailer attached to his lorry.

Some of the trips were thwarted by border officials and residents in Orsett, Essex, had repeatedly reported migrants being dropped off to the police.

In May 2018, Harrison, the "man on the Continent", was fined after being caught at the Channel Tunnel in France with 18 Vietnamese migrants in his trailer.

Yet the smuggling operation was not stopped until after the tragic journey.

When Robinson opened the doors at about 1.13am on October 23, 2019, after pulling over, a plume of vapour escaped and Robinson stood for 90 seconds after seeing bodies inside. He then closed the door, got back into the cab and drove off.

Before dialling 999, the Old Bailey heard, he exchanged panicked calls with his boss Hughes and Nica, who had been waiting for him in Orsett with his drivers.

Robinson drove in a loop before returning to the avenue where he had opened the door moments earlier.

Nica told jurors that Robinson had called him and said: "I have a problem here - dead bodies in the trailer."

About 23 minutes after finding the bodies, Robinson finally dialled 999, at 1.36am.

Asked if the patients were breathing, he said: “No. There, there’s loads of them, there’s immigrants in the back but they’re, they’re all lying on the ground.

“I went and lifted a trailer from Purfleet, the freight terminal, and I got around to where I was gonna park up for the night and I heard a noise in the back and I opened the door and there’s a bunch of them lying.”

When an operator asked how many people were in the trailer, Robinson said: “The trailer is jammed. I don’t know.”

Essex Police PC Jack Emerson, one of the first officers on scene, told the court the migrants were “closely-packed” and “half-naked” as they lay motionless on the floor of the trailer.

He told the court: "Most of them were wearing clothes on their lower half but they all appeared to not be wearing any clothing on their upper half.

"All of the bodies appeared intact and it was in my opinion that they had not been there for a very long period of time as there was not any visible sign of decomposure.

"There was however a strange smell coming from the trailer that smelt like chemicals.

"There was also smoke condensation coming from the rear of the trailer which suggested to me that the trailer was refrigerated."

Jurors were told the temperature inside the trailer reached a maximum of 38.5C sometime after 9pm.

The court heard that between 10pm and 10.30pm the carbon dioxide (CO2) inside the trailer had reached its toxic threshold, though the prosecutor said that was not agreed evidence.

The families of the victims in Vietnam and Britain have spoken of their loss and hardship.

Phan Thi Thanh, 41, had sold the family home and left her son with his godmother before setting off on the ill-fated journey.

Her "heartbroken" son said: "I heard about the incident from mass media so I called dad in the UK in order to confirm if mum was a victim.

"I was very shocked, very sad and I was crying a lot."

Tran Hai Loc and his wife Nguyen Thi Van, both 35, who were found huddled together in death, left two children aged six and four.

The children's grandfather Tran Dinh Thanh said: "Everyday, when they come home from school they always look at the photos of their parents on the altar.

"The decease of both parents is a big loss to them."

Fifteen-year-old Nguyen Huy Hung's UK-based father Nguyen Huy Tung, learned about his death on social media.

He said: "We were very shocked, trembled, we lost track and awareness of our surroundings.

"My wife had fainted many times whenever our son's name was mentioned."

The maximum sentence for people-smuggling is 14 years in prison, with manslaughter carrying a possible life sentence.

Essex Police Chief Constable Ben-Julian Harrington said: "Every person in that trailer had left behind a family. They had been promised safe passage to our shores and they were lied to. They were left to die, all because of the greed of the men who have been sentenced today."

He paid tribute to the victims' families, saying: "They've kept their dignity, and they put their trust in us to deliver justice. I promised them that we would, and my teams have done just that."

Senior investigating officer Detective Chief Inspector Daniel Stoten welcomed the sentences, saying: "I hope that the quality and the detail of the evidence, and the high level of exposure that this case has had, demonstrates that our pursuit of those involved in these wicked crimes is unrelenting.

"May this serve as a warning to those who think it's OK to prey on the vulnerabilities of migrants and their families, transporting them in a way worse than we would transport animals. My message to you is that we will find you and we will stop you.

"Thirty-nine victims died in the trailer. Two of them were just 15 years old and had travelled half the world unaccompanied - all of them left behind families, memories, and homes, in the pursuit of a false promise of something better. Instead they died, in an unimaginable way, because of the utter greed of these criminals."

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Essex Lorry People Smugglers Jailed For 12-27 Years Over Deaths of 39 Migrants

Tricky Task of Catching The People Smugglers - Asked Which Ports are Being Used, The National Crime Agency Said : "All of them."

Marius Mihai Draghici Was Essential Cog in Operation That Caused Deaths of 39 People, Court Hears

BBC NEWS 13 JUL 2023









Since the Calais migrant camps were shut years ago and security measures were increased at Dover and the Channel Tunnel, people smugglers have increasingly moved to other routes.

More dangerous methods are being used to get human cargo through.

The most common one is being hidden in the back of a lorry, but increasingly commercial shipping containers are being used, sometimes even refrigerated ones of the type seen on the back of the truck in Essex.

Risks are substantial for the migrants, who can pay £10,000 or more for a space on these vehicles.

A man who was an “essential cog” in a people-smuggling gang that caused the death of 39 men, women and children in a lorry in Essex has been jailed for more than 12 years for manslaughter.


The victims, who were all Vietnamese nationals, died after being crammed into a sealed airtight container on a ferry from Zeebrugge in Belgium to Purfleet in October 2019. They had agreed to pay up to £13,000 each for a “VIP” service to come to Britain for a new life.

Marius Mihai Draghici, 50, fled Britain and was detained by police in Romania last August before being extradited. He was painted as a ringleader by the prosecution and pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey last month to 39 counts of manslaughter and conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration.




Mr Justice Garnham jailed Draghici for 12 years and seven months at the Old Bailey on Tuesday, telling him he was an “essential cog” in a conspiracy that made “astonishing profits out of the exploitation of people desperate to get to the UK”.

The judge said the victims, two of whom were just 15, suffered “unspeakable” conditions with “people trapped inside the trailer with no ventilation and no way of getting out”.


The sentence appears to be the most lenient so far to members of the people-smuggling ring. Four others were jailed in 2021 for manslaughter, including the ringleader Gheorghe Nica, 46, who received the longest sentence of 27 years.

Bill Emlyn Jones KC, prosecuting, described Draghici as “not just acting as a driver but playing the role of something of a right-hand man to Mr Nica”.

Draghici accepted being involved in the last three people-smuggling runs, including the fatal trip.

Jones told the court that the victims’ last hours “must have entailed unimaginable suffering and anguish”.

The victims were packed into the lorry container on 22 October 2019 in total darkness and sweltering conditions.

The 28 men, eight women and three children desperately tried to raise the alarm before running out of oxygen and the court was shown harrowing messages and voicemails.

The judge described the “pitiful audio recordings” of those trapped inside “reporting they could not breathe and a growing recognition they were going to die there”.

One unsent text message by a young mother read: “Maybe going to die in the container. Cannot breathe any more.”


Maurice Robinson, 28, a lorry driver from Northern Ireland, discovered the bodies early on 23 October after being messaged by his boss, Ronan Hughes, 43, to “give them air”, but not let them out. Robinson was given 13 years and four months, while Hughes received 20 years for manslaughter in 2021.

On discovering the bodies, Robinson alerted Draghici, Nica and others waiting at a nearby pick up point near Collingwood Farm in Orsett. Jones said gang members “immediately abandoned the plan and melted away in the night”, with Draghici following Nica on a flight from Luton to Romania.

Victim impact statements read out to the court set out families’ horror at their relatives’ suffering.

Nguyen Huy Hung, 15, had been on his way to live with his parents in Britain and work as a hairdresser. His father said they were “very shocked” and “trembling” after hearing what happened on social media.

“We did not believe it was the truth until we saw his body with our own eyes,” he said. “We felt numb and that feeling lasted for many weeks later.”


A married couple – Tran Hai Loc and Nguyen Thi Van, 35 – were found lying side by side in the container. The court heard they had paid $7,000 to travel to Hungary to work as fruit pickers and had told their families five days before their death that their plans had changed.




The 39 victims and their families had paid thousands to give them a better life in Britain

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