Mastermind pleads guilty to suffocation of 39 Vietnamese in container

Kẻ chủ mưu nhận tội về vụ 39 người Việt chết ngạt trong container - Ảnh 1. — Defendant Marius Mihai Draghici (small photo) and the crime scene

AFP news agency reported on June 23 that a Romanian man accused of being the ringleader of a human trafficking ring has pleaded guilty to the case of 39 Vietnamese people suffocating in a container in the UK in 2019.

Defendant Marius Mihai Draghici (50 years old) was arrested in Romania in August 2022 and was prosecuted by British prosecutors on 39 counts of murder and conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration.

The defendant admitted the above crimes at a court in London (UK) on June 23 and will be sentenced at a later date.

The victims, including two 15-year-old boys, suffocated to death in a truck container while en route to the UK. Their bodies were discovered in a container at a port near London on October 23, 2019.

The case has sparked a global outcry over human trafficking and the exploitation by gangs, with victims paying up to £13,000 each to be brought to Britain.

In 2021, two other traffickers were sentenced to 27 and 20 years in prison in connection with the case, while two truck drivers were sentenced to 13 and 18 years in prison.

Four other men were also jailed in the UK for conspiracy to facilitate illegal immigration, and another was sentenced to 10 months in prison after pleading guilty to a minor offence.

Belgium has convicted 19 people in a human trafficking ring linked to the deaths of 39 Vietnamese people found suffocated in a container.

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