A leading people smuggler, whose network is believed to be responsible for the majority of illegal cross-Channel journeys in recent years, has been unmasked by a BBC investigation.
The 28-year-old Iraqi Kurd has evaded arrest for several years by operating under the alias "Kardo Ranya". He has kept his real name a closely guarded secret, which has frustrated law enforcement agencies in their efforts to issue an international warrant for his arrest.
The lack of information about Kardo Ranya’s real name has also made it harder for individual police forces in Europe to track his whereabouts or follow leads beyond their own borders.
However, using contacts in the smuggling world, my colleague Rob Lawrie and I were able to follow a trail from migrant camps on the northern French coast, all the way to Iraqi Kurdistan, obtaining Kardo Ranya’s real identity and details, and ultimately confronting him. The story of this search is told in a new BBC Radio 4 podcast, Intrigue: To Catch A King.
Kardo Ranya is believed to operate a smuggling operation with routes stretching from Afghanistan to the UK.
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He took his pseudonym from the town of Ranya in Iraqi Kurdistan, where he is believed to be from. This is an autonomously governed region "riddled with active smuggling networks", according to a 2024 report by the international affairs think tank, Chatham House.
"We’d say the majority of the small-boat criminal business model is controlled by Kurds," said Dan Cannatella-Barcroft, acting deputy director of the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA).
A number of smugglers who have either come from Ranya, or operated there, have recently been targeted by the NCA, he added.
This echoed what we heard from a smuggler in a French migrant camp, who said the network that controlled the cross-Channel trade was often referred to as the Ranya Boys.
Kardo Ranya’s real name may have been a secret, but he has not been reluctant to show his face when advertising his services as a smuggler on social media platforms. He has also posted videos tempting customers with images of luxury in London, and testimonies from apparently satisfied customers who have already made the journey to the UK.
A former smuggler told us that Kardo Ranya’s network charges about €17,000 (£15,000) to transport a migrant all the way from Iraq to the UK. Although this price is often higher than that of his rivals, the network claims to offer a safer journey (and a VIP service for those who can pay). "[Kardo Ranya] charges more," the former smuggler said, "but still the migrant goes to him."
However, the long journey across the Middle East and Europe is both illegal and unsafe at almost every step of the way. It has proved fatal for many migrants.
Small-boat crossings have become the most common way for people to be detected entering the UK illegally since 2020. Nearly all those arriving this way claim asylum - saying they cannot live safely in their own country because of persecution or violence.
Almost all those making the journey across the Channel are aged under 40. Men and boys made up nearly nine in 10 small boat arrivals between 2018 and 2025.
There were 103,426 people in asylum accommodation as of December 2025 - including hotels, houses of multiple occupation (HMOs) or former military sites.
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In a French migrant camp, we heard the story of a young man from Ranya called Shwana, who had made the journey from Iraqi Kurdistan to the English Channel last year.
The 24-year-old is known to have reached the coast of northern France in November, where he was one of about 100 people put aboard a boat fit to carry fewer than 20. Smugglers pushed them out to sea but remained on shore themselves, according to a fellow passenger.
The craft began to sink mid-voyage. Most passengers were picked up by a coastguard patrol and returned to France, but four people appear to have been lost overboard in the dark, among them Shwana. His body has never been found.
The crossing had been co-ordinated via a WhatsApp group, according to Shwana’s fellow passenger, who showed us a mobile phone number used by the smugglers. It was also a number that featured in one of Kardo Ranya’s social media adverts.
We were later able to talk to Shwana’s family in the town of Ranya itself. They say he had been influenced by adverts such as these, dangling the idea of a more prosperous life in the UK.
High unemployment rates and the lack of prospects in Iraqi Kurdistan have made it easy for gangs to tempt young people to gamble everything on a journey to mainland Europe and the UK.
Lifestyle & Culture Editor
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