Gang used burner pay-as-you-go phones and evaded automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras
Ringleader Gheorghe Nica, 43, and driver Eamonn Harrison, 24, found guilty of 39 counts of manslaughter
In May 9 2018, Harrison was issued with civil penalty notice after he was caught with 18 Vietnamese migrants
Total of eight men now convicted in connection with the deaths of 39 Vietnamese men, women and children
In October last year, 39 Vietnamese migrants suffocated to death inside a lorry trailer in Thurrock, Essex
By Press Association 2021
Victims found in the back of a trailer
An “unscrupulous” gang of people-smugglers are facing years behind bars for their part in the deaths of 39 migrants.
The Vietnamese victims, aged between 15 and 44, suffocated in the back of a trailer as they were shipped to Purfleet in Essex from Belgium on October 23 last year.
With false promises of a better life in Britain, they were betrayed by greedy criminals who pursued profits of more than £1 million that month alone.
On Monday, Romanian ringleader Gheorghe Nica, 43, from Basildon, and lorry driver Eamonn Harrison, 24, from County Down, were found guilty of 39 counts of manslaughter.
They could be facing life behind bars for the manslaughter of 39 migrants.
Another man, Christopher Kennedy from Keady, was found guilty of conspiracy.
The Vietnamese migrants, aged between 15 and 44, were found dead in the back of a trailer in Essex on October 23 last year.
They had suffocated in sweltering temperatures as the airtight container was shipped from Zeebrugge to Purfleet.
Following a 10-week trial, Romanian ringleader Gheorghe Nica, 43, from Basildon, and lorry driver Eamonn Harrison, 24, from County Down, were found guilty on Monday of 39 counts of manslaughter.
They were also convicted of their part in the people-smuggling operation with lorry driver Christopher Kennedy, 24, from County Armagh, and Valentin Calota, 38, from Birmingham.
BBC News
By Laurence Cawley and Gaetan Portal
BBC News
image captionPham Thi Ngoc Oanh, 28, from Nghe An, wrote a text message that was never sent Maybe going to die in the container, can t breathe any more dear, read a text message typed by Pham Thi Ngoc Oanh. It was never sent. What led to her and 38 fellow Vietnamese nationals dying in the dark and sweltering heat of an airtight container?
Driver Maurice Robinson pulled his articulated lorry over on a largely deserted Essex industrial park.
He got out of the cab, went to the rear of the trailer and opened the doors.