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The BBC traced Twana Jamal, an Iraqi Kurd previously known by the nickname Pasha, to two mini-marts named Candy Corner in the village of Blaby near Leicester following a tip-off received earlier this year. According to the broadcaster’s report, Jamal was observed staffing the till, moving stock and driving a vehicle without a licence while presenting himself as Sultan, a name that matches aliases prosecutors said he used during his French trial. Jamal’s 2016 conviction described him as one of the most prolific smugglers operating from the Grand Synthe camp near Dunkirk between 2012 and 2016, where he charged migrants between 4,500 and 5,000 pounds for crossings that at the time relied mainly on freight lorries rather than small boats.
When BBC journalists confronted Jamal outside one of the shops as he swept the pavement, he denied any involvement in people smuggling and insisted he had lived in the United Kingdom since 2009. “I don’t care,” he replied after being shown a photograph from his French court appearance, the investigation stated. Jamal also dismissed questions about driving without a licence by asking “So what? Did I hit you?” while refusing to provide his name, though he claimed both the Home Office and immigration service already knew it.
The case has prompted fresh scrutiny of post-Brexit arrangements for sharing criminal records with European partners. A report from the US State Department placed the number of trafficking convictions in the UK at 353 for 2024, following 2,453 investigations initiated that year.[[1]](https://www.state.gov/reports/2025-trafficking-in-persons-report/united-kingdom) Lucy Morton of the Immigration Services Union told the BBC that the absence of comprehensive data-sharing agreements with countries such as France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands means lower-level convictions and prior immigration histories often remain invisible to UK checks.
European law enforcement sources cited in the BBC report identified at least 15 other convicted people smugglers now believed to be living in Britain under false names, some continuing illicit activities. One individual with a French conviction operates a used-car business in Manchester and is suspected of ongoing smuggling involvement, while another in Blackpool has publicly boasted on social media of securing leave to remain after an asylum claim made under an alias. Jamal himself was linked during his French trial to the Ranya Boys, a Kurdish network that authorities across Europe have identified as controlling much of the cross-Channel smuggling trade for the past 15 years.
Official figures show small-boat arrivals reached 39,271 between April 2025 and March 2026, a 3 percent rise on the previous 12 months, with 39,649 individuals who crossed in this manner claiming asylum in 2025.[[2]](https://www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/stay-informed/explainers/top-facts-from-the-latest-statistics-on-refugees-and-people-seeking-asylum/) The Migration Observatory reported that non-UK nationals made up 12.4 percent of the prison population in England and Wales as of June 2025.[[3]](https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/commentaries/migrant-convictions-and-prison-population/) Parliamentary records indicate that 5,179 foreign national offenders were removed from the UK in the first year of the current government, marking a 14 percent increase on the preceding year.[[4]](https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2025-07-21/debates/510B0567-ECB1-480B-A98A-4B1F8C8F8736/AsylumHotelsMigrantCriminalActivity)
The Home Office said all asylum claimants undergo mandatory security checks covering identity, security and criminality, and that the department maintains agreements enabling the exchange of criminal record information with partner countries. Enforcement activity has reached its highest level on record, with arrests for illegal working up by 83 percent, according to the department. The broadcaster’s findings form part of a wider investigation that also resulted in the arrest of another prominent smuggler, Kardo Jaf, and are detailed in the Radio 4 podcast To Catch A King.
