Outrage at people smuggler let into Britain days after conviction in France | UK | News
A small boat dangerously full of migrants (Image: Getty)
A locksmith for a gang accused of smuggling nearly 10,000 illegal immigrants across the Channel has returned to Britain days after he was convicted in France.
Kaiwan Poore, 41, was granted bail by a French court in November 2024 and escaped before being sentenced to five years in prison for his role in the human trafficking crime group described by prosecutors as the “Merchants of Death”.
The Sunday Express can reveal that the Iranian-born criminal, who holds British citizenship, was scandalously able to return to the UK after his conviction despite his wanted status and is understood to have been appealing for help for eight months before he was caught.
Poore was arrested at an address in Stoke last July by officers from the National Extradition Service, after an arrest warrant was issued by French authorities on the day of his sentencing at the District Court in Lille.
He was ordered to return to France by a judge at a hearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London last month. He is appealing the decision.
Kaiwan Poore is detained at Manchester Airport before boarding a flight to Türkiye in 2022 (Image: Manuel Harlan)
Poore has three years left in his prison sentence. During court hearings it was revealed that although he claimed to be unemployed and on Universal Credit, he was living in Coventry, where he helped build a local mosque.
The mechanic was first caught by National Crime Agency officers at Manchester Airport in July 2022 as he tried to board a flight to Türkiye.
He was later extradited to France following a previous hearing at Westminster court.
Poore’s initial capture was part of a Europe-wide police operation that led to the arrest of nearly 40 suspected people traffickers and the seizure of more than 100 boats, as well as motors and life jackets.
The mechanic and other gang members were accused of facilitating small boat crossings between France and the UK, with ships and other equipment being transported from Germany and the Netherlands to the coast of northern France.
The gang were described in French courts as the “Merchants of Death” as they were known to dangerously load inflatable boats across the English Channel at up to 15 times their capacity.
According to the Migration Observatory, a total of 162 people lost their lives in the Channel between 2018 and 2025.
Each crossing the gang organized earned them a profit of around £83,000.
Gang boss Hewa Rahimpur (Image: National Crime Agency)
Poore was among 18 members of the criminal network convicted following a trial in Lille, northern France, in November 2024.
Iraqi gangster Mirkhan Rasoul, 27, ran much of his smuggling operation from his prison cell in Le Havre, where he was serving an eight-year sentence for attempted murder. He was sentenced to an additional 15 years in prison.
The ringleader of the smuggling syndicate was another Iranian national, Hewa Rahimpur, who was arrested in a car park in Ilford, Essex, in May 2022 and later sentenced to 13 years in prison after being extradited to Belgium.
Poore, who sought asylum in the UK and received a British passport in 2005, played a key role in the smuggling operation.
“He organized or organized migrant crossings to the United Kingdom, in particular by providing life jackets and petrol, booking and paying for hotel rooms to accommodate smugglers or migrants, supervising or participating in departures, participating in the transport of maritime equipment imported into France, and pre-organizing these by being present at departure areas,” the court documents said.
The gang’s crimes were committed in Northern France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Greece. Türkiye and Germany, between November 2021 and June 2022.
Confiscated life jackets intended for use in small craft passages (Image: Courtesy of the National Crime Agency)
NCA deputy director Craig Turner said during the French trial: “This network was one of the most efficient we have come across in terms of the number of crossings they were able to organise.”
Poore refused to testify at the last extradition hearing, but told the court he left the country after his hearing because he was “confused” and thought he would not face further imprisonment after two years in custody.
A Home Office spokesman said: “This Government will not allow foreign criminals to abuse the system, which is why we are taking decisive action to eliminate foreign criminals wherever possible.
“People in the UK illegally have no right to claim taxpayer-funded benefits.”
