People smugglers are now selling ‘business and first class’ services to help migrants reach the UK, with one Iranian family paying 18,000 to board a ferry in the car of a corrupt official, BBC podcast reveals [Video]

A prolific people smuggler who’s on a global ‘most wanted list’ is so ‘addicted’ to making illegal millions that he’s introduced ‘economy, business and first class’ tiers to migrants desperate for a new life in the UK – including £18,000 ‘less stress’ ferry tickets across the Channel. 

A new BBC Radio 4 Intrigue podcast To Catch a Scorpion sees journalist Sue Mitchell join forces with volunteer aid worker – and former Army expert – Rob Lawrie to try and track down ruthless smuggler Barzan Majeed, who was born in Iraq and uses the codename ‘Scorpion’.

The podcast, of which there are three episodes released so far, sees the pair try and track down the criminal mastermind, who continues to evade capture, in spite of an international police surveillance operation that has imprisoned many of his underworld colleagues.

In 2022, he was handed a ten-year jail sentence for people smuggling in his absence at a court in Bruges. Majeed, who was once …