A “right-hand man” in a people-smuggling ring has been jailed for more than 12 years for the manslaughter of 39 men, women and children found dead in a lorry trailer in Essex.
The Vietnamese nationals died in the airtight sealed container as it was being transported by ferry from Zeebrugge in Belgium to Purfleet in October 2019.
Marius Mihai Draghici, 50, fled the country and was detained by police in Romania last August and extradited back to the UK.
Last month, he pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey to 39 counts of manslaughter and conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration.
In a televised sentencing at the Old Bailey on Tuesday, Mr Justice Garnham jailed Draghici for 12 years and seven months.
He told the defendant 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 senior judge recognised the “pitiful audio recordings” of those trapped inside “reporting they could not breathe and a growing recognition they were going to die there” and their love-ones’ “heart-wrenching” statements..
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