A Vietnamese trafficking ringleader who sent 39 of his own countrymen to their deaths in a lorry discovered in an Essex industrial estate has been jailed for 15 years in Belgium.
Vo Van Hong, 45, was convicted of running a criminal organisation in Belgium involved in smuggling a total of 115 identified people to Britain between September 2018 and the date of his arrest in May 2020, more than two years after the truck full of corpses was found in October 2019.
At least 15 of the 39 dead had passed through the Belgian-based trafficking network, which operated two safe houses in the Anderlecht district of Brussels for migrants heading to Britain.
The victims – 31 men and eight women aged between 15 and 44, all Vietnamese – died from suffocation and hyperthermia in the confined space of the container, which arrived on a ferry from Zeebrugge.
Vo was one of 23 suspects – both Belgians and Vietnamese – put on trial after a May 2020 police operation in which several addresses, most in the Brussels region, were raided and Vietnamese suspected of links to the gang were rounded up.
Of the 23, a total of 19 – including Vo – were convicted and four were acquitted. The 18 others sentenced after Vo were given prison terms of under five years, most of them suspended.
Several suspects have already been convicted and incarcerated in Britain and Vietnam in connection with the case while in France, 26 more have been charged and face trial.
Vietnamese trafficking ringleader Vo Van Hong, 45, who sent 39 of his own countrymen to their deaths in a lorry discovered in an Essex industrial estate has been jailed for 15 years in Belgium
The migrants suffocated to death in the container on the back of this lorry in 38.5C temperatures as they crossed the Channel from Belgium to Essex
Most of the defendants were allegedly members of the people-smuggling ring.
Twelve of the defendants were charged for having worked as safehouse guards or grocery shoppers who fetched food for migrants being smuggled.
Ten of the accused – three Belgians, six Moroccans and an Armenian – were taxi drivers in Brussels and are accused of ferrying people to the safe house.
Prosecutors said the ‘very well-organised’ gang specialised in clandestinely transporting people into Europe then Britain for a fee of £19,800 (24,000 euros) per person.
Collectively, they were accused of involvement in ‘several dozen smuggling activities’ that illegally brought at least 100 people to the UK going back to September 2018.
They operated out of an apartment run by Hong that was located above a pizzeria on Ninoofsesteenweg, the main highway cutting through the Anderlecht district.
Prosecutors said the smugglers had connections in France, the Netherlands and Germany, and that it was believed some of the defendants continued their illegal activities after the October 2019 tragedy.
Vo denied acting as ringleader and claimed he was a ‘victim’ of the smuggling ring but was handed a 15-year sentence, the statutory maximum, and a fine of £735,300 (920,000 euros).
Vo was one of 23 suspects – both Belgians and Vietnamese – put on trial after a May 2020 police operation in which several addresses, most in the Brussels region, were raided and Vietnamese suspected of links to the gang were rounded up
Most of the defendants were allegedly members of the people-smuggling ring. Collectively, they were accused of involvement in ‘several dozen smuggling activities’ that illegally brought at least 100 people to the UK going back to September 2018
Of the 23, a total of 19 – including Vo – were convicted and four were acquitted. The 18 others sentenced after Vo were given prison terms of under five years, most of them suspended
Belgium launched an investigation into the deaths after it emerged the container in which the migrants died originated in the port of Zeebrugge (pictured, in court today)
Prosecutors said the gang used an Irish trucking company that regularly imported Vietnamese biscuits to get the migrants across the Channel, and that Vietnamese gang members took charge of them once they got to Britain.
In previous court documents, prosecutors laid out the route the migrants had taken to the UK which ended up with them dead.
On October 21, two days before the bodies were found, prosecutors say migrants who had been brought to Hong were driven Paris.
Then – the following day – they were taken to Bierne in northern France where they were ordered inside the refrigerated lorry.
Driver Eamonn Harrison, 23 and from Northern Ireland, then drove the trailer back to Belgium and to the port of Zeebrugge where it was left on the dock to be loaded on to a ferry bound for Purfleet, in Essex.
During the journey, temperatures inside the trailer soared to 38.5C and oxygen levels dropped near-zero, causing the 39 people inside to suffocate.
Many sent desperate last texts or voice messages to loved ones as they died, while at least one grabbed hold of a metal pole and tried to batter their way out.
A separate trial in the UK established the trailer was then picked up by driver Maurice Robinson, also from Northern Ireland, who was texted by boss Ronan Hughes telling him to ‘open it and give them some air but don’t let them out’.
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Robinson sent a thumbs up emoji back and soon pulled over on an industrial estate in Grays, Essex, and opened the container doors – 12 hours after they were sealed.
During the trial, jurors saw horrifying footage of steam gushing from the container as Robinson opened it. He then sent a message to Hughes saying: ‘They’re f***** dead.’
Robinson then re-sealed the lorry and drove around for seven minutes before returning to the same industrial estate and parking up a second time.
He opened the read doors again, then had a call with Hughes. A short time later, fixer Gheorghe Nica became involved in the calls, as did Christopher Kennedy, another lorry driver involved in the operation.
For 15 minutes, the four-some called and texted one-another while trying to work out what to do. Robinson eventually called police and requested an ambulance.
Emergency services rushed to the scene, but could do nothing to save the victims.
Police described arriving to an horrific scene of 39 bodies – 31 men and eight women, ten of whom were teenagers and the youngest of whom were 15-year-old twins – piled up in the trailer.
The victims included 31 men and eight women, ten of whom were teenagers and the youngest of whom were 15-year-old twins
Four men aged between 26 and 36 were also jailed in Vietnam for luring the migrants to make trips abroad (pictured, the regions where the victims originated from)
Realising their gruesome fate, at least one migrant had tried to batter their way out of the lorry with a metal pole (damage pictured) while others sent heartbreaking messages to families
Most had partially undressed in order to keep cool as the temperature climbed, before collapsing on the floor.
Police arrested Robinson at the scene and launched an investigation, as other members of the gang tried to cover their tracks.
Nica and two other gang members, Marius Draghici and Valentin Calota, fled the UK for Romania where they were later arrested.
Kennedy was arrested in November as he drove a truck on the M40, while Hughes and Harrison are extradited from Ireland the following June.
In October, all were hauled before the Old Bailey in London on charges ranging from manslaughter to criminal conspiracy. In January 2021, all were sentenced for their crimes.
The court heard that Harrison, 23, and Robinson, 26 – together with Nica, 43 – were paid by Ronan Hughes, 40, to ferry non-EU citizens into the UK.
Hughes headed the million-pound people-smuggling ring which used death trap lorries on multiple occasions – charging his human cargo up to £14,000 a head for a ‘VIP’ service.
Hughes was jailed for 20 years, while fixer Nica – who arranged transport from Essex to London for the foreign nationals – was sentenced to 27.
Robinson was handed a 13-year and four-month sentence, while Harrison – who dropped off the trailer in Zeebrugge – was jailed for 18 years.
Seven men – including Harrison and Robinson – have already been jailed in the UK for their part in the operation.
Ronan Hughes and Gheorghe Nica, who were found guilty of orchestrating the smuggling operation, were sentenced to 20 years and 27 years respectively.
Harrison was given 18 years and Robinson was given 13 years. Three others – Christopher Kennedy, Valentin Calota and Alexandru-Ovidiu Hanga – were given between three years and seven years.
Another investigation in Vietnam established that most of the migrants had come from a poor central region of the country, and had been lured into making the dangerous journey by local fixers assuring them of a better life overseas.
The victims had stumped up around £10,000 each for the trip, with their families mostly borrowing the money on the promise to pay it back once their relatives reached the UK, began working and sent cash home to them.
Four men aged between 26 and 36 were eventually found guilty of brokering illegal migration in Vietnam, and jailed for between two and a half years and seven years.
Seven men have been jailed in the UK over the deaths, including Ronan Hughes (left) who was jailed for 20 years and Maurice Robinson (right) who was sentenced to 13 years
Fixer Gheorghe Nica, 43 (left), was sentenced to 27 years while driver Eamonn Harrison (right) was jailed for 18 years
This post first appeared on Dailymail.co.uk
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