A 50-year-old Romanian national was sentenced in London to 12 years and seven months in prison on Tuesday for his involvement in the deaths of 39 Vietnamese migrants found in the trailer of a truck in October 2019.
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Marius Mihai Draghici pleaded guilty to manslaughter and assisting illegal immigration. He had fled the United Kingdom, before being arrested last August in Romania and then extradited.
Delivering his sentence in the Old Bailey court in the British capital, the judge described him as an “essential cog” in the network and the “right arm” of Georghe Nica, a Romanian in his forties convicted in January 2021 to 27 years in prison for manslaughter and migrant smuggling.
The 39 Vietnamese migrants – the youngest of whom were two 15-year-old boys – had died of asphyxiation and hyperthermia in the confined space of the container, while being transported to what they hoped would be a new life in the United Kingdom.
The appalling discovery had highlighted the functioning of illegal immigration networks which thrive on the hope of candidates for exile ready to take all the risks and pay considerable sums.
Another leader in this case, Ronan Hughes, a Northern Irish road haulier, was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Maurice Robinson, who was driving the truck when the bodies were found, was sentenced to 13 years and four months in prison. Eamon Harrisson, the 24-year-old driver who had transported the trailer to the Belgian port of Zeebrugge, claiming he was unaware of the presence of the migrants on board, was given an 18-year prison sentence.
According to prosecutor Emlyn Jones, Marisu Draghici was present on October 19, 2019 when Georghe Nica made a “very large payment” to carrier Ronan Hughes, after recovering the money from a Vietnamese trafficker.
According to his lawyer Gillian Jones, the defendant is “shocked and horrified” by what happened and is struggling to cope with the enormity of the facts.
The ramifications in this case have resulted in legal proceedings in several European countries.
A Vietnamese accused of having been the head of the network’s Belgian cell was sentenced in early 2022 in Belgium to 15 years in prison by the Bruges Criminal Court, while French justice ordered a trial for 19 men suspected of having participated in the vast network of illegal immigration from Vietnam to Europe.