A court has ruled that a man investigated by the National Crime Agency was responsible for transporting hundreds of illegal migrants to the UK in small boats, HGVs and via yacht.
A judge at Maidstone Crown Court had previously ruled that Iraqi national Mohammed Ali Nareman, 37, from London, was unfit to stand trial because he suffered from PTSD, panic attacks and depression, meaning he could not be cross-examined or properly instruct defence lawyers.
But the judge did order that a trial of facts, based on evidence gathered by the NCA, should still take place.
Following this, today (14 October) a jury at the same court found that Nareman had committed people smuggling offences.
Officers from the NCA identified that Nareman, alongside a second man Ali Omar Karim, 47, from Portsmouth was behind an incident in February 2022 where a yacht was run aground in Rye, Sussex.
Karim was controlling a network of people smugglers throughout northern Europe and the Middle East and his phone showed he was involved in the movement of people from Serbia, Turkey, Kosovo, Bosnia and other countries through border crossings in Romania and Hungary using HGVs.
Within two hours of the February 2022 incident, 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 19 April 2023, and widen their investigation into his activities.
Nareman’s own phone showed he had travelled from his home to Rye on 12 February. 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.
Messages showed the pair discussing another people smuggling attempt in November 2022 which suggested they charged migrants £1,650 each for a crossing in an HGV.
On 17 November 2022, a lorry was stopped at Calais and two Iraqi nationals were found hidden in the trailer.
In another incident, they discuss a small boat crossing where migrants were drinking alcohol which had caused complaints. Nareman said they should “just kick him in his head and then kick him to the dinghy”.
Messages also refer to multiple dinghies, indicating multiple crossings and the scale of the operation Nareman and Karim were operating.
On 19 January 2023, the defendants discussed a crossing by lorry, charging £24,000. The voice note was translated to say: “the okay for two passengers, £24,000. Give the ‘okay’. With the agreement that the driver boarding them one side and the driver dropping them the other side. If they were arrested in Dover inside the lorry, they not pay a cent.”
They also discussed weather predictions, suggesting on one evening that the danger is ‘very high’. Nareman later called Karim and sent screenshots of forecasts stating: “you will see the wind is low, there is no problem at all for after tomorrow. even the dinghy can go.”
Karim was arrested in Portsmouth in March 2024 and pleaded guilty to people smuggling offences in June 2024. He will be sentenced on 8 January 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.
“Tackling organised immigration crime remains a top priority for the NCA, and we are determined to do all we can to target, disrupt and dismantle them, wherever they operate. We are currently leading around 100 ongoing investigations into networks or individuals in the top tier of organised immigration crime who are involved in the highest harm, highest threat crime groups.”
14 October 2025
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