Transport and Logistics Network
The M62 has reopened this morning (Friday, June 16) between Huddersfield and Manchester after a vehicle crashed and overturned.
Roads and traffic monitoring service Inrix first reported the incident at 2.49am. It said that the motorway was closed westb…
Mariwan Mustafa, aged 33, of Ovenden Way in Halifax was found guilty of facilitating illegal immigration and was today (Wednesday) sentenced to two years and six months in prison.
Mustafa was part of an organised crime gang whose activities were uncovered following a four-year investigation by the National Crime Agency (NCA).
In the early hours of March 11, 2019, NCA officers watched as members of the gang drove their VW Touran people carrier to rendezvous with a lorry driven by Romanian national Marinel Danut Palage, 31, at an industrial estate in West Sussex.
Mariwan Mustafa, from Halifax
The truck had arrived in Portsmouth on a ferry from Caen in northern France the previous evening and was carrying a legitimate load of spinach from Spain.
But it was also carrying at least three people who had been brought to the UK illegally.
In total, the gang was sentenced to 26 years in jail but the alleged ringleader of the crime group remains at large and is now wanted along with another gang member by the National Crime Agency.
Goran Jalal, aged 37 and from Bradford, is suspected of organising crossings, while Hemin Ali Salih, aged 37 and from Manchester, is wanted after being convicted of attempting to use Jalal’s criminal network to smuggle a relative to Britain.
Cash found in the lorry
NCA officers are issuing appeals for the whereabouts of both men following the sentencing today (10 May) of the remaining members of the gang.
Key to the plot was Romanian lorry driver Palage who carried out migrant runs for the network in his truck, using crossings from Normandy into Portsmouth.
Kamaran Kader, aged 44 and from Bradford, and Pshtewan Ghafour, aged 37 and from Middlesbrough, acted alongside Jalal and worked with Palage to organise crossings, says the NCA.
Following a four-week trial at Bournemouth Crown Court, Palage and Ghafour were found guilty of conspiring to facilitate illegal immigration. They were sentenced to nine and five years in prison respectively.
Cash found hidden in the lorry
As part of the same trial, Jamal Walid Saied, 38 and from Manchester, Halifax’s Mustafa and Salih were all found guilty of facilitating illegal immigration. They were today handed sentences of three years, two-and-a half-years, and two years respectively.
Salih absconded before the start of the trial and was convicted and sentenced in his absence. A warrant has been issued for his arrest.
Kader had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing and was sentenced to four-and-a-half years.
NCA Branch Commander Richard Harrison said: “People smugglers risk lives, which is why targeting them is a priority for the NCA and we are doing all we can to disrupt and dismantle the criminal networks involved.
“The men convicted and sentenced put profit ahead of people. They were happy to put vulnerable migrants into the backs of lorries for long Channel sea crossings, and I’m delighted they are now behind bars.
“But Goran Jalal and Hemin Ali Salih both remain at large. Warrants have been issued for their arrests, and we will not rest until they are in custody.”
Anyone with information on the whereabouts of either Jalal or Salih should contact the NCA on 0370 4967622 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.
HERE
The unknown pedestrian was just seconds away from being “squashed” by the lorry which had been struck at the junction by a speeding Volkswagen Passat.
The Passat driver, Shaheib Mohammed, 24, was today (Wednesday) jailed for two years and eight months after Bradford Crown Court heard that his passenger that night suffered a catalogue of serious injuries including a bleed on the brain and a ripped aorta.
Judge Colin Burn was told that the injured man, who was described as Mohammed’s best friend, had declined to cooperate with the police investigation and did not want to see him sent to prison.
Shaheib Mohammed, 24, was today (Wed) jailed for two years and eight months after Bradford Crown Court heard that his passenger that night suffered a catalogue of serious injuries including a bleed on the brain and a ripped aorta.
But Mohammed, of Clay Pits Lane, Pellon, Halifax, pleaded guilty to a charge of causing serious injury by dangerous driving and Judge Burn said his actions had been “lethally dangerous”.
The judge said regardless of what Mohammed’s friend might think now an entirely innocent pedestrian came within a couple of metres at the most of being “squashed” between the HGV and a house wall.
“It wasn’t a case of momentary inattention,” the judge told Mohammed.
“It is quite clear from the footage that you were driving at high speed down the road.”
Bradford Crown Court
Judge Burn said Mohammed’s offence was aggravated by the fact that he failed to give a sample of breath or blood following the crash.
Prosecutor Gareth Henderson-Moore said Mohammed had been driving the Passat on Sand Beds at about 10.30pm on May 11 last year when he overtook another vehicle at speed and failed to slow down for the junction despite the lights being on red.
He said Mohammed and the HGV driver suffered minor injuries, but the defendant’s friend had bleeding on the brain, damage to the major arterial vessel of his chest and fractures to his ribs, breastbone and femurs.
Mr Henderson-Moore said the complainant had declined to provide a victim personal statement.
Mohammed’s barrister Erin Kitson-Parker referred to the complainant saying he did not want her client to go to custody, but Judge Burn said he had to consider the offence in the light of other road users and the pedestrian who narrowly missed being “obliterated” by the lorry.
Miss Kitson-Parker said Mohammed had “held his hands up” despite knowing that his friend never wanted to cooperate.
She said Mohammed, who had limited previous convictions, expected an immediate custodial sentence but she submitted that the judge could consider a suspended prison sentence.
But Judge Burn said there was far too many men like Mohammed deliberately driving in excess of the speed limit and well beyond their capabilities.
Mohammed was banned from driving for a total of three years and four months and he must take an extended test at the end of that period before he can lawfully drive again.
Halifax man in court accused of 10 offences after women shown indecent images on…
By Oli ConstableBBC News5 hours agoImage source, Oli Constable/BBCJust days after the government scrapped all new smart motorway plans over cost and safety concerns, the BBC spent a shift with the National Highways team in Yorkshire to see how its offi…
Tributes have been paid by family and friends to a much-loved Halifax[1] woman following her sudden death.
Gaynor Louise Stammers has been described as a ‘beautiful soul’ who was fun to be around and loved by her family and friends.
Among those paying …
A family had to be treated in hospital after a devastating house fire in which they lost most of their possessions.
Sara Atkins, 35, was in the house with five of her six children when a fire broke out late in the evening at their home in Ovenden Grove…
The Telegraph
Let’s not forget the brave men of Bomber Command – we owe them a debt
[1]
On the night of 23 August 1943, a Halifax bomber of 158 Squadron, RAF Bomber Command, was shot down by a German night fighter. As the doomed aircraft hurtled toward…
Tributes have been paid to a young who died in an horrific car accident in the early hours of today (Mon).
Harris Abu Bakr, 23, died in a car crash in the early hours in Bradford[1]. West Yorkshire Police[2] say three men have been arrested on suspicio…
INTRODUCTION
Rail freight is an important part of the US transportation system, providing efficient and cost-effective solutions for moving goods from one place to another. In 2023, rail freight services will continue to be a crucial component of the U…
The detective who caught Wearside Jack has spoken of how close police came to never finding Yorkshire Ripper hoaxer John Humble.
The Sunderland bricklayer’s voice became synonymous with the serial killer when he sent a tape to police in June 1979. Humb…