People smuggling operation run from Caerphilly car wash, court hears

Two people smugglers trafficked hundreds of illegal migrants across Europe by hiding them in boats, lorries and cars in an operation ran from a Caerphilly car wash, a court has heard.

Dilshad Shamo, 41, and Ali Khdir, 42, allegedly smuggled refugees from the Middle East across Europe using a string of different methods to defy border police.

The pair are accused of being part of an organised people smuggling cartel which moved people from Iraq, Iran and Syria through the EU to Italy, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Croatia, Austria, Germany and France.

They were arrested in a National Crime Agency swoop in April last year after an investigation centred around the Fast Track Hand Car Wash run by both men in Caerphilly.

Prosecutor Sarah Gaunt said: “This case involves the trafficking of people, or as it’s referred to in this case, as people smuggling, predominantly of migrants from Iran, Iraq and Syria.

“Migrants often paid several thousand pounds to be trafficked across Europe by various organised routes.

“These defendants were conducting the people smuggling operation from Caerphilly and primarily from the Fast Track Hand Car Wash, situated in Pontygwindy Road, Caerphilly.

“The countries focussed upon in this case are Italy, Romania, Germany and Croatia. These four countries were among the European countries that migrants were trafficked to or through by these defendants.”

“It is the prosecution’s case that this evidence shows various agreements, to traffic, or attempt to traffic, individuals from non-European Union countries into and across the EU for monetary gain. This was in breach of the immigration laws that existed in those countries.”

She said that fixers would used the “Hawala” money transfer system “where there is no need to send money between the sender and recipient.”

She added: “This operated through money agents based in Iraq and elsewhere and was used for the financial transfers from the migrants to themselves and also for transfers between the co-conspirators, although some smaller transfers were made via Western Union.”

Ms Gaunt said investigators placed listening devices in the defendants cars which recorded their plans in their native Kurdish language but were translated into English for evidence.

She said that two Mercedes cars belonging to Shamo, and Khdir’s Audi and the car wash were fitted with “covert recording materials” and other evidence gathered included Whatsapp chat logs, and pin drops of locations to track migrants as they travelled across Europe and logging of money transfers.

The jury of six men and six women were told the defendants used different methods to smuggle people into Europe known as “the Turkey route”, “the visa route”, “the lorry route” or “the Bosnian route”.

Ms Gaunt said the “Turkey route” involved migrants from Iran, Iraq or Syria legally crossing into Turkey before illegally travelling onwards by ship into Italy.

The “visa” method would see migrants obtain legal documents to enter countries such as Belarus and Moldova to then be trafficked on into Romania, Germany or Austria.

Ms Gaunt said the “lorry route” would see migrants into lorries and move them on by sea or by road to Italy and German or “onwards to other countries such as France.”

A fourth alleged method was called known as the “Bosnian route” where “Cars or taxis can be used to transport various individuals into Croatia or Slovenia and on to Italy.”

Ms Gaunt said that both Iraqi-born Shamo and Iranian-born Khdir worked together and ran the Fast Track Hand Car Wash in Caerphilly and phones were seized from there as part of the investigation.

She added: “Although it did function as a car wash, this company may have also operated at least in part to provide a cover for the defendants’ other activities.”

Shamo and Khdir, of Caerphilly, deny five counts of conspiring to breach migration laws in Italy, Romania, Croatia and Germany.

The court heard investigators will use mobile phone evidence to link the two men to the conspiracy but the pair will deny the numbers belong to them.

Ms Gaunt said: “As with any large international business, it takes several people operating different roles to coordinate the operation of people smuggling.”

She added that the roles included recruiters who acquired potential migrants, others who took deposits and others who took and stored the migrants’ legitimate passports.

Other alleged conspirators included transport coordinators, taxi drivers, HGV drivers and shop operators and “guides to the migrants during the various stages during the events.”

She added: “It is the prosecution’s case that these defendants can be seen organising and liaising with a large number of individuals in order to facilitate or attempt to facilitate the illegal immigration.”

Cardiff Crown Court heard the offences – under the 1971 Immigration Act – are alleged to have been carried out between September 2022 and April 2023.

The trial, listed for four weeks in front of the Recorder of Cardiff Tracy Lloyd-Clarke, continues