Smuggler sentenced to prison for deaths of 39 Vietnamese migrants who suffocated in truck in UK

Forensic police officers attend the scene after the truck was found to contain the bodies of the 39 Vietnamese victims. - AP

LONDON (AP): A Romanian man who was part of an international human smuggling ring was sentenced Tuesday (July 11) to more than 12 years in prison for the deaths of 39 migrants from Vietnam who suffocated in a truck trailer on their way to England in 2019.

Marius Mihai Draghici was the ringleader's right-hand man and an "essential cog” in an operation that made huge profits exploiting people desperate to get to the UK Justice Neil Garnham said in the Central Criminal Court, known as the Old Bailey.