A man from south Armagh is among those who have now been sentenced for their role in a people-smuggling plot.

Daniel Loughran, 36 and from Newtownhamilton, was part of a people smuggling gang who conspired to move 10 Vietnamese migrants, eight of them children, from Belgium to the UK on March 5, 2020.

The gang are believed to have charged each migrant £15,000 for the crossing, during which they were hidden in the back of a lorry amid an unstead load of used tyres.

Co-conspirator Eoin Nolan, 53 and living in Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, arranged for Duncan McLaughlin, 64 and from Glasgow, to travel to Kent to pick up an HGV and take a ferry to France, said the National Crime Agency (NCA) in a statement today.

placeholder image — Images released by the NCA showing the migrants hiding among the stacks of tyres

There, he met the migrants at a predetermined rendezvous point in the Rue de Forts area of France before being driven to Zeebrugge in Belgium where they would have been loaded onto a ferry destined for Purfleet, England.

Instead, the Belgian authorities and the NCA intercepted the trailer in Gentbrugge, Belgium.

“The migrants had already paid £150,000 to make the crossing, which has never been recovered,” said the NCA.

NCA investigators found that Loughran had also been working closely with Wayne Sherlock, 44, originally from County Meath but living in Dover in Kent.

The pair arranged for an HGV tractor unit to be driven from Armagh to Dublin, before boarding a ferry to Holyhead and onwards to Kent the day before the smuggling took place.

Sherlock previously pleaded guilty for his role in the conspiracy in June 2020 and was sentenced to four years' imprisonment.

The group were in constant conversation, planning routes and how the migrants should be hidden in the vehicle.

Nolan and Loughran were arrested by NCA officers and convicted of conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration following a five-week trial at Maidstone Crown Court on February 6.

They were sentenced at the same court today.

Loughran was sentenced to five years and six months in prison, and Nolan was sentenced to four years in prison.

McLaughlin was arrested close to Bruges in March 2020 in a joint operation with the NCA and Belgian police.

He was bailed and fled Belgium, being convicted in his absence in October 2021 and sentenced to 37 months imprisonment and an 88,000 euro fine.

NCA Branch Commander David Cunningham said: "Nolan and Loughran's organised crime group continued to relentlessly pursue making this crossing a success, despite it being just months after the tragic deaths of 39 migrants who had tried to make a similar journey.

"We saw in their communications that they faced issues finding a driver to smuggle the migrants but persisted anyway, despite the danger involved.

"They operated as a well-oiled machine and took £150,000 from these vulnerable migrants, most of whom were children, for their own pure greed.

"The group loaded old tyres to the trailer for the sole purpose of appearing to be a legitimate delivery and the migrants were told to hide within them, despite them being unstable and the potential for serious injury or worse if the journey had continued.

"The NCA will continue to tackle organised immigration crime and in our work with partners to bring criminal gangs like those Nolan and Loughran were involved in to justice."

Tarika Jayaratne, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: "The two defendants in this case made significant efforts to avoid and undermine the checks and controls we have on immigration at our borders. They also put the safety and wellbeing of the vulnerable children they were smuggling at risk for profit.

"The CPS is continuing to work with law enforcement partners to discourage, disrupt and dismantle this exploitative trade through prosecutions and cross-border collaboration."