Gambiaj.com – (LEEDS, United Kingdom) – The ringleader of a Gambian-led criminal network based in the United Kingdom has had his prison sentence significantly extended after admitting to running a sophisticated scheme that raked in more than £1 million by doctoring passports to smuggle hundreds of people, mostly Gambians, into Britain illegally.
Lamin Manneh, 51, who was already serving a six-year sentence handed down in 2024 for facilitating the illegal entry of two migrants, appeared in court again on Friday, 26 June, where he received an additional six years and eight months after pleading guilty to conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration and money laundering.
Seven others were jailed alongside him at Leeds Crown Court. Alieu Barry, 31, was sentenced to six years; Mariama Jallow, 46, received four years and 11 months; Ida Chow, 40, was given three years and eight months; Musu Sanyang, 49, was sentenced to two years and seven months; Pa Sanneh, 44, received two years and one month; and Sulayman Samateh, 46, was handed three years. Dodou Cham, 31, was given a 12-month community order along with 60 hours of unpaid work.
Prosecutors described the operation as a “one-stop shop” for migrants seeking to enter the UK unlawfully. The gang did not simply forge documents; it ran a full-service smuggling enterprise, arranging travel, meeting clients at the airport on arrival, and securing them housing and employment once in the country.
Top row, left to right: Lamin Manneh, Alieu Barry, Mariama Jallow, and Ida Chow. Bottom row, left to right: Musu Sanyang, Pa Sanneh, and Sulayman Samateh
At the heart of the scam was a method of obtaining genuine Gambian passports already containing valid British visas, then altering the biometric page and visa to insert photographs of paying clients.
In one particularly troubling case detailed by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), the gang reused the passport of a deceased Gambian man to smuggle three separate individuals into Britain, simply swapping out the photograph each time.
All eight defendants had earlier pleaded guilty to facilitating unlawful immigration into the UK. Manneh, Barry, Jallow, and Chow additionally admitted to laundering the proceeds of their criminal activity. The case was prosecuted by specialist lawyers from the CPS’s organized crime division.
While the CPS told the court that several hundred people were believed to have been helped into the country illegally between January 2022 and July 2025, investigators said the precise number may never be confirmed.
However, a search of Manneh’s mobile phone uncovered images of 559 unique passports, offering a glimpse into the scale of the operation.
Investigators first picked up the trail in early 2024, when a man was stopped at Manchester Airport traveling on a passport belonging to someone who had been burgled in Gambia two years earlier, with his documents stolen during the break-in.
Under questioning, the traveler admitted to paying the equivalent of £5,200 for fraudulent documents and a travel package, a confession that ultimately unraveled the wider network.
Robert Warner, a specialist prosecutor with the CPS, described the operation as far-reaching in its impact. “This was a sophisticated plot that brought hundreds of people to the UK who had no legal right to be here,” he said. “Lamin Manneh and his gang charged their customers thousands of pounds and offered a one-stop shop for migrants seeking to enter the UK illegally. They provided fake travel documents, booked flights, and found migrants accommodation and jobs.”
He added that the CPS would continue working alongside the Home Office and police “to ensure successful prosecutions of criminal gangs facilitating illegal entry to the UK.”
The case marks one of the most significant prosecutions to date involving a Gambian-led immigration fraud network operating in the UK and is likely to intensify scrutiny of passport security and visa verification processes both in Britain and in The Gambia.
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