A man arrested after a yacht carrying migrants was run aground in Rye in February 2022 was responsible for a huge people smuggling operation over several years. Hundreds of illegal migrants were brought to the UK in small boats, HGVs and yachts.
A jury at Maidstone Crown Court ruled that Iraqi national Mohammed Ali Nareman, 37, from London, had committed people smuggling offences after a trial of facts on Tuesday October 14.
Officers from the National Crime Agency (NCA) identified both Nareman and Ali Omar Karim, 47, from Portsmouth, to both be behind the Rye incident on the river Rother. 14 individuals from Iran, Iraq and Albania, including two children, were detained by Border Force officers.
Their phones were examined and video clips were found showing people on board the yacht. When translated, they said: “We are all Hama Kalari’s passengers, thank the great God now we are in the water.”
One of the migrants had been in contact with Nareman prior to the event, leading NCA officers to arrest him at his home on April 19 2023, and widen their investigation into his activities.
Nareman’s own phone showed he had travelled from his home to Rye on February 12. Images were found on his device of maps of the French and British coastlines, seemingly planning a crossing.
Images of migrant passports and messages of him directing people to his home via postcode were also discovered, as well as a video of Nareman holding a large sum of cash totalling £50,000.
The phone also contained multiple conversations with contacts regarding HGV and small boats crossings, the prices migrants were charged, and even arguments with other facilitators relating to crossing attempts.
This evidence allowed NCA investigators to establish that Nareman was the Hama Kalari referred to in the migrant videos.
A further phone was found at the property, hidden under a child’s play tent, that showed videos, photos, messages and voice messages that suggested his involvement in people trafficking.
Evidence on Karim’s phone suggested those trafficked paid £800 to £1,000 to get into the EU, and then charged a further, larger amount to get from France to the UK.
Karim was arrested in Portsmouth in March 2024 and pleaded guilty to people smuggling offences in June 2024. He will be sentenced on January 8, 2026.
Nareman will remain in custody until the same date.
Rachel Bramley, from the NCA, said: “Mohammed Ali Nareman was extremely prolific in the criminal world of people smuggling. His messages with Karim and others showed the group’s disdain for the people they were transporting – they were seen as nothing more than a commodity for them to make money from. Our investigators uncovered their extensive digital footprint, which showed months of activity organising crossings both by small boats and HGVs, sharing routes and prices, receiving praise in videos of migrants on their crossings and boasting of the proceeds they made.”
You can read more about people smuggling – including an interview with Rye Harbour Master James Bateman – in this BBC South East article.
Image Credits: NCA .