Car wash owners jailed for helping smuggle more than 400 people into Europe

Two men who ran a car wash in South Wales have been jailed for 19 years each for their part in a people smuggling ring.

Dilshad Shamo, 43, and Ali Khdir, 42, helped transport hundreds of people to Europe from Iraq, Iran and Syria.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) said migrants were offered three tiers of service: the cheapest in the back of a lorry or by foot; the next offering travel by cargo ship or yacht; and the top by providing plane travel.

Payment was handled in Iraq and Turkey by bankers using the Hawala system - an informal transfer method that works outside the normal banking system.

The pair even got migrants to film videos on their way to Europe and used the positive "reviews" as adverts on social media.

Shamo and Khdir communicated with other smugglers in the larger network via WhatsApp.

Prosecutors said they helped transport at least 409 people in just six months in what the NCA called a "round-the-clock" operation.

The men - who had a car wash business in Caerphilly - were arrested in Newport in 2023 after an NCA operation supported by Gwent Police.

They initially pleaded not guilty, but on day 10 of their trial at Cardiff Crown Court in November 2024, they pleaded guilty to five counts of conspiring to breach immigration laws.

The same court today sentenced them to 19 years each.

"While on the surface they portrayed themselves as successful businessmen running a car wash from Caerphilly, they were actually leading an entirely separate life as part of a criminal network," said NCA branch commander Derek Evans.

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The Crown Prosecution Service said they claimed to have helped only a handful of people, mainly friends and relatives, and weren't out to make money.

"We didn't accept the basis on which Ali Khdir and Dilshad Shamo admitted their guilt because they tried to minimise their leading role in seeking to bring hundreds of migrants illegally into Europe," said Kate Hurst from the CPS.

"The court accepted our evidence and has handed down sentences that they both deserve."

(c) Sky News 2026: Car wash owners jailed for helping smuggle more than 400 people into Europe