Deaths of 39 Viatnamese migrants in Grays sees man jailed for 12 years

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.

In June, he pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey to 39 counts of manslaughter and conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration.

Mr Justice Garnham jailed Draghici for 12 years and seven months in a televised sentencing at the Old Bailey on Tuesday, July 11.

Justice Garnham, said: “The trailer conditions where the victims died were unspeakable.

“People were trapped inside the trailer with no ventilation and no way of getting out.

Four other gang members were jailed in 2021 for between 13 and 27 years for the manslaughter of the 39 migrants.

They are Ringleader Gheorghe Nica, 46, of Basildon, Essex, haulier boss Ronan Hughes, 43, of Armagh, Maurice Robinson, 28, of Craigavon, who found the bodies, and Eamonn Harrison, 26, of County Down, who had collected the victims on the continent.

Bill Emelyn Jones, prosecuting, said: “The victims’ last hours must have entailed unimaginable suffering and anguish.

Lorry driver Robinson had discovered the bodies in the early hours of October 23 after being messaged by Hughes to “give them air”, but not let them out.

Robinson had picked up the container at the docks and opened the doors before alerting others including Draghici and Nica waiting at a nearby pick-up point near Collingwood Farm in Orsett.

Mr Jones added: “The prosecution case is that Draghici became party to a sophisticated, long-running and highly profitable conspiracy to smuggle illegal migrants to the United Kingdom, in the back of lorries, in a deliberate and intentional breach of border control.”

He added Draghici was recruited by fellow Romanian Nica and became his effective “right-hand man” and they were “inseparable”.