China has arrested the ringleader of an ill-fated human smuggling operation that resulted in the deaths of 58 Chinese immigrants in a truck found at the British port of Dover, state media said yesterday.
The official Xinhua news agency reported that police had recently caught Chen Xiaokong, head of a smuggling racket that spirited the illegal immigrants to Dover last year.
However a relative of one of the victims expressed doubt yesterday that Chen was the genuine leader.
Chen, a well-known "snakehead" (
He went into hiding after he was sent back home, Xinhua reported.
Police arrested him on Tuesday, the eve of Chinese New Year, when they found him taking illegal drugs in a corner of a discotheque in Liangjiang County in the southern province of Fujian, from where the 58 victims came.
The bodies of the 58 Fujianese -- 54 men and four women aged between 16 and 43 -- were found suffocated on June 18, concealed behind crates of tomatoes in a Dutch-registered truck that had crossed by ferry to Dover from the Belgian port of Zeebrugge.
Ventilation in the sealed truck had been turned off and the victims' desperate cries for help were not heard.
Only two of their companions survived the ordeal in the truck. The bodies of the 58 victims were flown back to Fujian earlier this month.
A relative of one of the victims said she doubted authorities had arrested the key snakehead.
"I don't believe it. They should conduct a thorough investigation and arrest all the snakeheads," she said.
Many victims' families are sceptical that authorities will ever get to the bottom of the case because they suspect local police and other officials are involved in opening channels for the smugglers.
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