One of Europe’s most notorious human traffickers, wanted by Interpol, has been arrested in Iraqi Kurdistan, following a BBC investigation.

Barzan Majid was arrested in Iraqi Kurdistan on Sunday morning, a senior government official said.

For several years, he and his gang were involved in people smuggling in boats and trucks across the English Channel. The BBC tracked down Majid, also known as Scorpion, in the city of Sulaymaniya, where he confessed to ferrying thousands of migrants across the canal.

“Maybe a thousand, maybe 10,000. I don’t know, I didn’t count,” he said.

A senior member of the Kurdistan Regional Government said that officials were able to use the BBC’s findings to locate Majid.

“It was at 7 am today that the arrest took place outside his house, he was arrested the moment he came out of the house and he was arrested without any serious problem,” the official said.

“We are now looking at the charges against him here mainly, and then we will talk to European police and prosecutors who want to question him.”

The UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) also confirmed the arrest.

Between 2016 and 2021, the Scorpion Gang believed to have controlled much of the human smuggling trade between Europe and the UK.

A two-year international police operation led to the convictions of 26 members of the gang in courts in the UK, France and Belgium.

But Scorpion himself evaded capture and fled.

On his own, he was tried in a Belgian court and convicted of 121 counts of people smuggling. In October 2022, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined €968,000.

In an earlier phone call the BBC had with him, Majid had shown little sympathy for the drowned migrants. “God [το γράφει] when you’re going to die, but sometimes that’s your fault,” he said. “God never says ‘get into the boat.’

“No one forced them. They wanted to,” he said. “They were begging the smugglers, ‘Please do it for us.’ Sometimes the smugglers say, “Only for God’s sake, I will help them.” And then they complain, they say, ‘Oh, this, that…’ No, that’s not true.”

Ann Lukowiak from the Belgian public prosecutor’s office welcomed the news of his arrest.

“We finally have a chance to see justice served in this case, to face his crimes squarely and be held accountable for them.”