A Glasgow driver hid migrant children in tyres as part of a UK smuggling plot. Accomplices face sentencing in April.
The NCA, working with Belgian police, arrested McLaughlin near Bruges and safely rescued all ten migrants. McLaughlin fled after his release on bail and was convicted without being present in court in October 2021. He received a 37-month jail sentence and an 88,000 euro fine.
Eoin Nolan, 53, and Daniel Loughran, 36, assisted him, convicted of conspiracy for helping with unlawful immigration after a five-week trial held in Maidstone Crown Court on February 6. Nolan and Loughran, who worked in England and Northern Ireland, organized the migrants’ movement from Belgium on March 5, 2020, and will receive their sentences on April 16.
This occurred less than five months after a tragedy where thirty-nine people died in a similar attempt. The migrants had a meeting spot in the Rue de Forts area of France, where McLaughlin met them. Belgian authorities, tracking the truck with the NCA, stopped the trailer in Gentbrugge, Belgium, before it could board the ferry.
Nolan sourced the driver, McLaughlin, and arranged McLaughlin’s trip from Scotland to Kent, where he picked up a truck and took a ferry to France. McLaughlin then drove the migrants across Europe, staying in touch with Nolan to ensure they were collected on time.
Wayne Sherlock, 44, from Dover, Kent, was another member convicted in June 2020 and sentenced to four years in prison. Loughran worked with Sherlock to move a truck unit from Ireland to Kent on March 4, 2020. Messages revealed detailed planning, including routes and logistics. They discussed how migrants should hide, including loading them in the dark and sleeping inside the wheels, staying still until shouted to leave.