An Essex-based gang fronted by a career criminal have been found guilty of smuggling Afghan migrants into the UK using a truck, following an investigation by the National Crime Agency.
Mark Youell, 69, from Clacton, came onto the radar of the NCA in July 2019 when he and accomplice Carl Bailey, 52, were seen by surveillance officers meeting up with Kent-based career criminal, Freddy Lawrence.
Lawrence, 59, from Folkestone, Kent, was the subject of another separate NCA investigation, which would later lead to him being given a seven-and-a-half-year sentence for people smuggling in January 2025.
Officers followed Youell and Bailey and were able to establish that they were in contact with father and son Rohit and Surjeet Chawla, from Hayes in London, to arrange the smuggling of a group of Afghan Sikh migrants in a lorry operated by the gang. Both Chawlas had previous convictions for people smuggling.
Youell, Bailey, Chawla & Brewer
On 7 September 2019 NCA and Metropolitan Police officers moved in on the lorry after it arrived at Osterley Cricket Club in west London.
Twelve people, including one child, were found in the back of the vehicle, which contained a specially constructed concealment behind a false bulkhead.
Phone evidence would later show that the Chawlas were in the same area of Osterley at the time, and a SIM card found behind the false bulkhead in the lorry had been used to contact them.
The truck had travelled from Purfleet to France the previous day, returning via the Channel Tunnel to Folkestone. Gang member Terry Brewer, 51, acted as a go-between between those driving the lorry and Bailey.
Over the coming days Bailey, Youell and the Chawlas remained in phone contact, meeting in person on the 11 September. Shortly afterwards, Bailey and Youell were arrested by NCA officers, just after they had received a carrier bag containing £65,000 cash - payment for organising the facilitation.
The Chawlas were arrested in May and October 2020. Surjeet Chawla died in December 2022, before he could stand trial.
Bailey pleaded guilty to conspiring to facilitate illegal immigration and money laundering, but the other members of the gang denied the charge.
On 27 May, following a trial at the Old Bailey, a jury found Youell guilty of conspiring to facilitate illegal immigration and money laundering. Yesterday (3 June) the jury found Chawla and Brewer guilty of conspiring to facilitate illegal immigration. A date for sentencing will be set at a further hearing on 10 June.
The jury failed to reach a verdict in the case of a fifth defendant.
Separately, in 2021 Youell was convicted of conspiring to import class A drugs following a different NCA investigation.
NCA Regional Head of Investigations, Jacque Beer, said:
“This gang saw an opportunity to make money out of the desperation of others, using a vehicle that had been specially adapted to conceal people or commodities.
“They clearly did not care about the safety or security of the men, women and children they were transporting, just seeing them as an extra way to make more money.
“Tackling organised immigration crime remains a top priority for the NCA, and we are working with partners in the UK and abroad to target, disrupt and dismantle the criminal networks involved, wherever they operate.”
Giorgina Venturella from the CPS said:
“Thanks to the NCA’s investigation, the prosecution was able to present phone records showing how these men worked together and track their journey to and from France.
“Those involved in organised immigration crime cannot evade detection by using burner phones or changing numbers. The evidence in this case shows how law enforcement can piece together their activities.
“The CPS will continue to work with partners at home and overseas to bring those involved in organised immigration crime to justice.”
The NCA currently has around 100 investigations ongoing into gangs or individuals involved in the top tier of organised immigration crime.
4 June 2026
