Shadowy life of Europe’s most wanted people smuggler Scorpion… a flashy Nottingham mechanic who trafficked 10,000 to UK
HE is the former Nottingham mechanic said to have made as much as £500,000 a night by smuggling migrants across Europe.
Now, Europe’s most wanted people trafficker Barzan Majeed, known as Scorpion, has been traced to Iraq after disappearing off grid.
Majeed boasted that he had lost count of how many humans he had smuggled across the English Channel, but it could be as many as 10,000.
He said: “Maybe a thousand, maybe 10,000. I don’t know, I didn’t count.”
A new BBC Sounds podcast titled To Catch a Scorpion reveals how Majeed, originally from Iraq, hid migrants in lorries and crammed them into small boats as they sought a new life in Britain.
He is believed to be one of Europe’s most prolific smugglers and is wanted by several countries.
Two years ago a Belgian court convicted Majeed of trafficking offences in his absence and sentenced him to ten years in jail.
His associates told BBC journalist Sue Mitchell that Majeed charged £6,000 per person to get into the United Kingdom on a boat.
Many die on that trip, but that doesn’t seem to worry him.
Instead he blames the migrants for getting in the dangerous dinghies that he has arranged for them.
He comments that God writes down “when you’re going to pass away, but this is sometimes your fault. God doesn’t never say, ‘Go inside the boat’.”
His fellow smugglers admit to misleading the migrants by not informing them that they could claim asylum in France rather than risking their lives on Europe’s busiest shipping lane.
VIP smuggling
They also boast of providing different levels of comfort in getting across, according to their financial means.
A source reveals: “Barzan said there’s three modes – business, economic and first class.”
The cheapest option is £6,000 to be squashed in a dinghy. If you have £9,000 there’s the chance of a spot in a lorry and for £18,000 there is the ‘VIP’ service.
This ‘platinum’ service can include bribing officials or staff to get a migrant on a ferry and past border control.
Maybe a thousand, maybe 10,000. I don’t know, I didn’t count
Barzan Majeed
According to the podcast, Majeed now sees bribing lorry drivers to take his human cargo to be a better option.
One of his associates says: “In one night, he made £500,000. He had 56 passengers, the minimum price was £9,000 for the lorry.”
Middleman or kingpin?
Majeed is not driven by a desire to help refugees, but by a simple lust for cash.
The fellow smuggler says: “’He loves the nice cars, the nice house, he was living the high life, he had money always – $200,000 always under his bed.”
Sue was told that Scorpion is also involved in smuggling migrants from Turkey to Greece and Italy.
Sources claimed that yachts designed to carry a dozen passengers were being hollowed out so they could fit up to a hundred paying customers.
Majeed insists he is just the money man who takes bookings, rather than the mastermind of the operation.
He claims: “When they get arrested, they say, ‘We’re working for him’. They want to get less sentence.”
The Iraqi Kurd continues: “I never put anybody in a boat and I never kill anybody.”
There is plenty of demand for his business.
It is estimated that 32,000 people attempted to cross the English channel on small boats last year.
From Iraq to UK and back
Majeed is believed to have smuggled himself into Britain in the back of a lorry aged 20.
He worked as a mechanic in Nottingham and was refused the right to remain in the UK.
Majeed was convicted of drug and gun offences in Britain and was deported to Iraq in 2015.
What is the Rwanda asylum plan?
The Rwanda asylum plan was unveiled in April 2022, and calls for sending certain asylum seekers who enter the UK illegally back to Rwanda.
There, their their claim will be evaluated and, should their application for refugee status be granted, they will stay.
As per the plan, refugees shall not be permitted to return to the UK after they have been deported to Rwanda, where they will be dealt with under that country’s judicial system.
Video of immigration enforcement police holding multiple migrants at various houses before they were taken away in handcuffs and placed in secure cars was made public by the Home Office on May 1.
The action was taken in response to official records indicating that 3,557 out of 5,700 asylum seekers in the initial batch of migrants designated for repatriation to Rwanda have lost contact.
A government source denied they were missing, and insisted the Home Office could contact everyone under consideration.
It is understood that the UK has returned a first unsuccessful asylum applicant to Rwanda as part of a voluntary removals programme.
Up to £3,000 is granted to migrants whose claims are denied so they can relocate there.
He is said to have got into the people smuggling trade via one of his older brothers.
The breadth of their operation made them a target for the police across Europe.
A two-year investigation led to 26 gang members being convicted in Britain, Belgium and France.
But Majeed was not taken into custody and managed to escape to Turkey.
Sue and ex-military man Rob Lawrie, who has numerous contacts in the migrant world, were told that he had been seen in a cafe in Istanbul.
Having learned that Scorpion had recently visited a money exchange, the pair left their numbers and a message there.
That night Rob received a call with a man asking: “I hear you’re looking for me.”
The pair were later told that Majeed owned a villa in the tourist resort of Marmaris, but were then tipped off that he was in the Iraqi city of Sulaymaniyah.
This information proved to be correct and Majeed finally agreed to meet them in a coffee shop.
Majeed denied being a smuggler these days, but both Rob and Sue collected evidence that he was part of this deadly trade.
All episodes of To Catch a Scorpion are now available on BBC Sounds.