Essex lorry deaths – Irish ‘smuggling ring and links to Bulgarian gangs’ probed after deaths of 39 migrants
COPS are raiding two homes over the "mass-murder" of 39 migrants - as Irish smuggling rings with potential links to Bulgarian gangs are probed.
Dad-to-be , 25, is being quizzed on suspicion of murder after he picked the trailer packed with bodies up from Purfleet in Essex yesterday.
The grisly discovery is Britain's biggest-ever mass murder probes after the bodies were found on an industrial estate in Grays yesterday morning.
has reported all the 39 victims - including a teenager - are from China. Eight of the victims were women - with one described as a young adult.
The horror has chilling echoes of 2000, when 58 Chinese stowaways died in a lorry travelling by ferry from Belgium to Britain.
HOMES RAIDED
Robinson, who brands the lorry "The Polar Express" on social media, had picked up the trailer after it arrived from Zeebrugge, Belgium at 12.30am yesterday.
Cops investigating the deaths last night swooped on three homes in County Armagh, which are believed to be related to Essex Police's murder probe into Robinson.
Robinson, who has been a HGV driver for more than five years, doesn't own the lorry.
The lorry was registered in Varna, Bulgaria, in 2017 by an Irish company but has not returned to Bulgaria since then.
IRISH SMUGGLING GANGS
Varna is notorious for cigarette and fuel smuggling and has known links to Irish Republican gangs, reports.
Detectives from the National Crime Agency are now investigating whether an Irish people smuggling gang with links to Bulgaria was behind the horror.
The organisation last year warned smugglers were “abusing” the Ireland-UK border.
Bulgaria is a popular gateway into Europe for migrants desperately fleeing war-ravaged Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Millions have entered the country from neighbouring Turkey through the so-called "Balkan Route" over the past five years.
Last year, 12 Bulgarians were caged over the deaths of 71 migrants, who suffocated in a sealed lorry in Austria that was so tightly packed, they couldn't sit down.
Police had found the decomposing bodies in the lorry, which was registered in Hungary, with ringleader Samsoor Lahoo receiving 25 years in jail.
And in June, a huge Bulgarian-based smuggling ring was smashed after cops raided homes in Sofia and other towns with traffickers from Afghanistan and Iraq.
In 2018, Bulgarian authorities arrested 689 migrants trying to enter the country illegally.
But the numbers could soar because of Turkey’s military operations against Kurdish fighters.
Last night sources close to Irish police said the lorry’s refrigeration unit - which could have plunged temperatures as low as -25C - was turned on, leaving those inside with "no chance of survival".
Even if the trailer was not chilled the victims may have suffered agonising deaths as oxygen slowly ran out.
Why death-trap refrigerated lorries are used
Migrants are increasingly being smuggled into the UK using refrigerated lorries.
Thermal imaging cameras used at UK ports are unable to detect people inside the lorries due to the freezing temperatures.
In July, 13 migrants were discovered in one of the lorries in St Albans, Herts.
A spokesman for a leading manufacturer of thermal imaging cameras told the Mirror: "It is quite plausible that the smugglers could do this as a way of evading detection.
"In a normal lorry, with PVC sides, if someone inside leans against the walls, in the right conditions, then thermal imaging can spot."
The NCA warned last year gangs were packing migrants into the containers to evade detection.
CCTV shows the lorry making its final journey packed with the dead suspected migrants - including one teenager - 30 minutes before the grim discovery was made.
Police say the lorry's cab travelled from Holyhead on Saturday, while the trailer - with the 39 bodies - travelled 173 miles from Zeebrugge in Belgium to Purfleet, Essex.
It was then unloaded from the ferry in Purfleet at 12.30am, and attached to Robinson's lorry.
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Both lorry and trailer then left the port at 1.05am. Less than 35 minutes later ambulance and police made the grim discovery of the 39 bodies in the back.
The National Crime Agency confirmed they are assisting Essex Police and Immigration Enforcement to "urgently identify any organised crime groups" who may be involved.
Anyone concerned about relatives following the incident can call a Casualty Bureau on 0800 056 0944 or 0207 158 0010 if ringing from outside the UK.
