Europe's most wanted migrant-smuggler 'The Scorpion' arrested in Iraq

An investigation carried out by the BBC to locate the absconding human smuggler tracked him down to Iraq's Sulaymaniya city.

Barzan Majeed, considered to be Europe's most wanted migrant smuggler, has been arrested in Iraq's Kurdistan region after two years on the run. Nicknamed 'The Scorpion', Majeed and his gang of human traffickers smuggled around 10,000 migrants in boats and lorries across the English Channel.

An investigation carried out by the BBC to locate the absconding human smuggler tracked him down to Iraq's Sulaymaniya city.

“Maybe a thousand, maybe 10,000. I don’t know, I didn’t count,” he told the BBC during a call last month regarding the number of migrants he had trafficked from the city.

“God (writes it down) when you’re going to pass away, but this is sometimes your fault. God doesn’t never say ‘Go inside the boat’."

According to the NCA, Majeed was detained on May 12 by Kurdish security forces.

Speaking to the BBC, an official of the Kurdistan Regional Government said officials used the British broadcaster's findings to locate Majeed.

"The arrest was made outside his home, they arrested him the moment he stepped out of the home and arrested him without any major problems,” the official was quoted as saying to the BBC.

“We are now looking at charges against him here first and foremost, and then we will be discussing with European police officials and prosecutors who want to question him and deal with him.”

Majeed's gang is believed to have controlled much of the people-smuggling trade between Europe and the UK between 2016 to 2021.