A people smuggler was jailed for more than 12 years for the manslaughter of 39 migrants who were found dead in a lorry trailer in Essex in 2019.

Marius Draghici, 50, acted as the "right-hand man" for the leader of the gang responsible for the deaths of the Vietnamese migrants, who ran out of air after they were sealed inside a shipping container.

He fled the country after the bodies were discovered in a trailer in Grays, Essex, in October 2019 but was detained by police in his native Romania and returned to the UK to face justice.

Draghici admitted 39 counts of manslaughter, as well as offences of conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration and was jailed at the Old Bailey for 12 years and seven months.

Eleven people have already been jailed in connection with the deaths, including four others for manslaughter.

The judge, Mr Justice Garnham, told Draghici he was an "essential cog" in a conspiracy which made "astonishing profits out of the exploitation of people desperate to get to the UK".

He said the conditions inside the trailer where the victims died were "unspeakable" with "people trapped inside the trailer with no ventilation and no way of getting out".

The judge's sentencing remarks can be read in full at: [ Ссылка ]

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