Kurdish authorities in Iraq used investigative information from the BBC to arrest the criminal, who is wanted in several European countries. Scorpion was convicted in 2022 of human trafficking.
One of the largest migrant smugglers to Europe, known by the nickname Scorpion, was arrested in Iraq last Sunday. Barzan Majeed’s arrest followed an investigation by the BBC.
Majeed, who had previously worked as a mechanic in Nottingham, UK, was wanted by the National Crime Agency (National Crime Agency) after being convicted of human trafficking offenses in 2022 in Belgium, following a joint investigation between the country and the United Kingdom.
This two-year international police operation resulted in the conviction of 26 gang members in courts in the United Kingdom, France and Belgium. But Scorpion escaped from prison and went on the run. The drug trafficker was wanted by European authorities and his whereabouts were unknown until the BBC found him.
The ANC has been informed of the arrest of Barzan Majeed – nicknamed ‘Scorpion’ – in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq. https://t.co/DMY77IJhiB
— National Crime Agency (NCA) (@NCA_UK) May 13, 2024
The investigation began in a migrant camp near Calais in northern France following reports of a girl who almost died while trying to cross the English Channel in an inflatable boat.
Since 2016, the same phone number continued to appear in searches of migrants’ mobile phones, often with the nickname Scorpion etched on it.
In an effort to find the people smuggler, BBC journalist Sue Mitchell, along with Rob Lawrie, a former soldier working with refugees, attempted to make contact with people with links to the smuggler.
Contacts took us to Istanbul, Turkey, an important stop for African, Asian and Middle Eastern migrants wishing to cross into the UK, due to the relative ease of obtaining a visa to enter that country.
After it was reported that Majeed had used an exchange office, journalists left their contact details there. During the night, he called a man who said he was Barzan Majeed.
After some failed telephone contacts, they received information from another contact who had seen Scorpion at a currency exchange office in Sulaymaniyah. After several messages, they managed to organize a meeting with the drug trafficker.
Majeed tried to justify himself to journalists, stating that he was simply “the money man” and that, to be a drug dealer, “you have to be there.” Despite the fear of being discovered and the difficulty in maintaining contact, the drug trafficker finally agreed to meet the couple in a shopping center in the city of Sulaymaniyah, Iraq.
During the meeting, journalists questioned the man about his responsibility in the deaths of the migrants, but Escorpión repeated what he had said in the first telephone contacts, that he limited himself to receiving the money and reserving seats. For Majeed, a trafficker was someone who loaded people onto boats and trucks and transported them, something he denied ever doing, just as he denied killing anyone.
During this search for the drug dealer, the BBC duo shared their findings with authorities in the UK and Europe, which subsequently led to his arrest.
According to the BBC, Kurdistan Regional Government authorities used information provided by the station. average to locate and arrest the criminal. “The arrest was made at 7 in the morning, outside his house. They arrested him the moment he left home without any major problems,” said the head of the Kurdish authorities.
“We are first investigating the charges against him here and then we will talk to the police and European prosecutors who want to question him and deal with him.”
Authorities believe that between 2016 and 2021 the Scorpion group will have controlled much of the human trafficking between Europe and the United Kingdom. A contact of Rob Lawrie claimed that more recently the smuggler was involved in smuggling migrants from Turkey to Greece and Italy.
Source: Observadora
