Traffickers sent messages about ‘people smuggling business’ – court hears

Two men who ran a trafficking ring from a car wash in Wales sent messages about the “people smuggling business,” a court has heard.

Dilshad Shamo, 41, and Ali Khdir, 40, both from Caerphilly, are accused of unlawfully moving hundreds of people through Europe, by arranging the movement of migrants in boats, HGVs and cars from Iraq, Iran and Syria.

Khdir, who was born in Iran, and Shamo, originally from Iraq, owned and operated the Fast Track Hand Car Wash in Caerphilly, where people trafficking is alleged to have been organised.

Cardiff Crown Court was shown various messages allegedly from the defendants on Wednesday, including some referring to the “people smuggling business”.

Denials

Both Khdir and Shamo deny five counts of conspiring to breach migration laws in Italy, Romania, Croatia and Germany to bring people into EU countries.

All the offences are alleged to have taken place between September 2022 and April 2023.

Voice and written messages appear to show Khdir and Shamo speaking with various people across Europe, Turkey and Iraq, discussing routes, passports and money changing hands.

The jury was also shown video clips, including of people on various routes, as well as audio recordings taken by the police using listening devices hidden in the defendant’s vehicles.

One message showed a man named “Chomani” saying to Khdir, “Hi Uncle have you got any people in Istanbul?”

A voice recording of Khdir’s response was played to the jury, where he said he had been busy working at “my car wash” and there were people who wanted Turkish visas, adding, “you are aware how people smuggling business is”.

Speaking on behalf of the prosecution, Sarah Gaunt, who read out dozens of messages, said she wanted to give the jury a sense of the “magnitude” and types of communications being sent.

She explained the messages had been downloaded from phones either seized from the defendants or that had been in “close proximity” to them.

Secret recordings

In one call captured by the police in Shamo’s car, he asked an “Uncle Andam” if he had people in Croatia or Italy that he could smuggle.

Shamo told him there were Croatian, Slovenian and Italian cars ready, adding, “just hand them to me and I’ll get them over the border” and “just say that Dilshad has got cars on both sides”.

In another translated recording, Shamo said: “All agents are under my control, including those in Bosnia, Serbia, Turkey, Italy and Slovenia.

“We have cars and if they cross the border to Turkey, I will manage the rest. I cannot take them straight away to British migration.”

Ms Gaunt told the jury the accused were also secretly recorded while they were being taken to the police station following their arrests on April 13 2023.

She said: “The defendants were conveyed to the police station in NCA (National Crime Agency) vehicles.

“There was a conversation between Shamo and Khdir in Kurdish, whilst next to each other in the police cars which was covertly recorded by the police, and was later translated.

“During this conversation, Shamo told Khdir, ‘just tell them that we didn’t facilitate anyone to enter the country illegally’.

“’They’ll only ask us some questions; it’s not related to anything else.’”

She said they told each other their phones had been confiscated by the police, with Khdir having given them his passcode, while Shamo said he had given an incorrect number.

The prosecutor added: “Shamo asked Khdir about the money in his bank account, stating, ‘So the rest of your money is in your bank account.

“‘You know what we should do? Just tell them that we are buying and selling cars, just say we do transfer money from our home country’.”

The trial continues on Wednesday.