Trucking boss gets 7 years for role in 2019 smuggling that led to deaths of 39 Vietnamese migrants

By BRIAN MELLEY
Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — The final member in a migrant smuggling ring that was responsible for the deaths of 39 Vietnamese immigrants who suffocated in a shipping container in 2019 has been sentenced by a London judge to seven years in prison. Caolan Gormley of Northern Ireland claimed he thought he was smuggling booze into Britain when the bodies of the migrants were found Oct. 23, 2019, in an English coastal town. The 26-year-old was sentenced on Thursday, four days after he was convicted of conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration. He’s the last of 11 people convicted in the migrant smuggling plot in England. Five of his partners in crime were convicted of manslaughter with one ringleader receiving a 27-year prison term.