A people smuggler whose network is believed to be responsible for more than half of Channel crossings in recent years has been unmasked as a 28-year-old Iraqi Kurd.

Kardo Jaf is thought to lead a vast international smuggling operation with routes stretching from Afghanistan to the UK.

He has been operating under the alias 'Kardo Ranya' - frustrating police efforts to issue an international arrest warrant, as this would require his real name. 

Jaf took the moniker from the town of Ranya in Iraqi Kurdistan, where he is believed to be from. 

Iraqi Kurdistan is an autonomously governed region 'riddled with active smuggling networks', according to a 2024 report by think-tank Chatham House.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) believes Kurds now control the majority of illegal cross-Channel boat crossings. 

Jaf's own network charges about £15,000 to smuggle a migrant from Iraq to the UK, according to an investigation by the BBC. 

This price is higher than rivals, but it claims to offer a safer service, with the option of a VIP service for those who can pay.

Even though Jaf has long hidden his true identity, social media adverts promoting his service include images of his face alongside messages saying: 'Come to Britain, there's a hotel waiting for you'. 

Investigative journalists confirmed Jaf's true identity by penetrating his inner network. In a secret recording, they then captured him offering a guarantee to reach the UK 

'In France we've got trucks or planes or boats, we've got so many ways to get to the UK - whatever way you prefer we'll get you to the UK,' he was heard saying. 

Last week saw the arrival of the 200,000th Channel migrant since the start of the small boat crisis - equivalent to the population of a city the size of Norwich. 

Anger has risen over the large numbers continuing to make the journey despite the Government agreeing to pay France £660 million over three years to help curb the crossings.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood agreed to give Emmanuel Macron's government a 'core package' of £500million – spread over the next three years - to continue funding anti-migrant operations by French police.

A further £160million will also be handed over to fund new tactics by the French including stopping dinghies once they are already in the water.

A previous three-year, £500million deal was agreed in 2023 by then Conservative PM Rishi Sunak and during the lifetime of the agreement more than 84,000 migrants reached Britain.

An undercover reporter used a WhatsApp number to contact Kardo Jaf and his associates, posing as a would-be migrant who wanted to fly his whole family to Britain.

The person on the phone quoted £160,000 for the 'VIP service', explaining that the family would be flown to an airport outside London and picked up by a driver.  

When Jaf called back a few days later, the reporter confronted him. 

He denied being a smuggler and claimed he had only ever advised people on how to leave Iraq. He said that he did not believe he had committed any offence. 

One of Jaf's collaborators recently received a 10-year jail sentence in France. 

Noah Aaron was a fellow member of the Ranya Boys network and had been involved in smuggling since at least 2019.

He was found guilty of offences including money-laundering and organising 'the illegal entry, movement or stay of a foreign national'.

More migrants have arrived under Sir Keir Starmer's tenure as Prime Minister than under any other PM, with 71,932.

Sir Keir surpassed the previous high of 65,800 under Boris Johnson in February this year.

Last year saw 41,472 migrants reach Britain, the second-highest annual total since the start of the crisis.

Last week, some French police took decisive action and slashed a migrant dinghy on a beach near Calais, but the officers were then reported to a human rights watchdog for doing so. Such direct action is increasingly rare from French police.

One of Labour's first acts in office was to scrap the previous government's Rwanda asylum deal which was designed to deter crossings and save lives. 

The International Organisation for Migration puts the total number of deaths associated with Channel crossings since 2018 at 288, including 148 drownings. 

Nearly nine in ten people making the illegal crossing are men and boys.

An NCA spokesperson said: 'NCA officers, rightly, have to operate under a legal framework which is very different to that faced by journalists.

'At the same time, the NCA has demonstrated we can disrupt criminal networks in places where they thought they were untouchable, for example in Libya and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, and there should not be an assumption that individuals like those highlighted by the BBC are out of our reach.

'The NCA currently has more than 100 investigations ongoing into networks or individuals in the top tier of organised immigration crime, including those based in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, and we are devoting more resource to it than ever before. 

'This is bringing results with the arrest and prosecution of numerous significant individuals in the UK and overseas.'

The first two episodes of Intrigue: To Catch a King are available now on BBC Sounds. The series starts on BBC Radio 4 on Wednesday 13th May at 9.30am with new episodes publishing weekly.