People-Smuggling Gang Made Millions Helping Illegal Migrants Enter Britain Using Stolen Passports, But One Mistake Brought Them Down

A large and highly organised people-smuggling gang has been jailed after helping hundreds of illegal immigrants enter Britain by using stolen and forged passports in a criminal operation believed to have made up to £2 million.

The gang ran what investigators described as a complete smuggling service. Migrants paid thousands of pounds to be given fake travel documents, flights into the UK were arranged for them, and once they arrived, they were provided with places to stay and helped to find illegal work. The operation continued for more than three years before it was finally uncovered by police.

The mastermind behind the network was 51-year-old Lamin Manneh, from Heckmondwike in West Yorkshire. Prosecutors said he was at the centre of the sophisticated conspiracy, which relied on genuine Gambian passports and visas that had been stolen or obtained illegally. The documents were then altered by replacing the original holder’s photograph with the picture of a paying migrant, allowing someone else to travel using a false identity.

The fake documents were reportedly sold for more than £5,000 each. After receiving the passports, migrants boarded international flights and entered Britain pretending to be the legitimate owners of the documents. Some passports were used over and over again, with different photographs inserted each time so they could be reused by multiple people.

Leeds Crown Court heard that the true number of people smuggled into Britain will probably never be known. However, investigators believe the figure runs into several hundred, with many of those brought into the country coming from Gambia.

Judge Neil Clark described the operation as a large-scale commercial conspiracy that had generated huge amounts of money. He said prosecutors believed that more than £1 million had passed through Manneh’s hands and that the total may even have reached £2 million. While it was impossible to know exactly how much of that money was profit, the judge said there was no doubt the operation had been run on a massive commercial scale.

Manneh had already been serving a six-year prison sentence after being convicted in 2024 for helping two men enter Britain illegally. However, investigators later examined his mobile phones and electronic devices in greater detail and uncovered evidence of a much larger criminal network.

During the investigation, detectives found images of 569 different passports and travel documents stored on his devices. Many of those documents appeared several times with photographs of different people inserted into them, suggesting that the same passports were repeatedly altered and reused to bring more migrants into the country.

The investigation revealed that the gang did far more than simply arrange travel. Once migrants landed at British airports, members of the group collected them and took them to addresses controlled by the organisation. They were then helped to find illegal jobs and, in some cases, were given false identities, bank accounts and paperwork so they could build new lives in Britain while pretending to be genuine residents.

The conspiracy began to unravel in early 2024 after two men, Alieu Gaye and Ebrima Sonko, were stopped by immigration officials at Manchester Airport while carrying forged travel documents. Evidence recovered from their mobile phones led detectives directly to Manneh, who later admitted helping them enter the country illegally.

One migrant told investigators he had paid the equivalent of around £5,200 for forged documents and travel arrangements. Prosecutors believe hundreds of other migrants paid similar amounts, helping the criminal network generate enormous sums of money over several years.

The court also heard that Manneh’s wife, 46-year-old Mariama Jallow, played an important role by making travel bookings for many of the migrants entering Britain. Another member of the gang, 40-year-old Ida Chow, managed much of the group’s finances. Although tax records showed she officially earned less than £10,000 a year, more than £404,000 was paid into her bank account during the period of the conspiracy.

Some of the most disturbing evidence involved the misuse of passports belonging to innocent people. One passport belonged to Ousman Ndong, a British citizen originally from Gambia who died from a heart attack while visiting his home country in 2017. After his death, his wife discovered that his Gambian passports had disappeared. Prosecutors told the court that the stolen passport was later used to help three different migrants enter Britain.

One of those migrants travelled through several African countries, including Guinea, Mali, Togo and Ethiopia, before finally arriving at Heathrow Airport in December 2022 using the dead man’s identity.

Another victim was Sambujan Gassama, a British Army soldier who was born in Gambia. After travelling home following his mother’s death in 2022, his house was burgled and his passport was stolen. The document later ended up in the hands of two migrants. One of them successfully found work at a mattress recycling business in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, while using Mr Gassama’s identity.

In July 2025, police officers and immigration enforcement teams carried out coordinated raids and arrested members of the gang. During a search of Manneh and Jallow’s home in Heckmondwike, officers found large amounts of cash, identity cards, bank cards, passport scans and numerous passport photographs, all believed to be linked to the smuggling operation.

The court heard that Manneh moved to Britain in 2007, later became a British citizen and had previously worked as an overnight delivery driver for Boots before becoming involved in organised crime.

Manneh admitted conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration as well as money laundering offences. He was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison. Six other members of the gang also admitted their roles in the conspiracy and received prison sentences totalling more than 22 years.

Alieu Barry was jailed for six years, Mariama Jallow received four years and eleven months, Ida Chow was sentenced to three years and eight months, Sulayman Samatah received three years, Musu Sanyang was jailed for two years and seven months, and Pa Sanneh was sentenced to just over two years. Sanneh also admitted entering Britain illegally.

Prosecutors said the case exposed one of the largest and most organised immigration fraud operations uncovered in recent years. They described it as a sophisticated criminal enterprise that exploited genuine passports, stole innocent people’s identities and enabled hundreds of people with no legal right to enter Britain to build lives in the country using false identities.