The head of a people smuggling ring was arrested at Manchester Airport after going on the run.
Tarik Namik, 45, operated a sophisticated, lucrative criminal enterprise transporting migrants from Iraq and Iran to the UK hidden in the back of lorries. Nine migrants, including five children, were dumped in a lay by in Skelmersdale, starving, dehydrated and begging for help in September 2017.
They had been illegally brought into the country in a Polish lorry, as part of an elaborate smuggling ring. Namik, from Oldham, failed to turn up at Manchester Crown Court for his sentencing on December 9 last year and a warrant was issued for his arrest.
