Overview
- Jurors at the Old Bailey found multiple defendants guilty of conspiring to facilitate illegal immigration, with Mark Youell also convicted of money laundering and sentencing dates to be set.
- Officers intercepted a specially adapted lorry at Osterley on September 7, 2019 and found 12 Afghan migrants, including a child, hidden behind a false bulkhead.
- Investigators used phone records and a SIM card recovered from the concealment to place suspects at the scene and to map calls that connected organisers in the UK and France.
- Shortly after the interception, NCA officers arrested Carl Bailey and Mark Youell when they were handed a carrier bag containing £65,000 that prosecutors say was payment for the smuggling run.
- The National Crime Agency says the case forms part of a wider effort against organised immigration crime, noting one alleged co‑defendant died in 2022 and one defendant was left without a jury verdict.