Dutch people-smuggling arrests

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands -- Nine Chinese have been arrested in The Netherlands on people smuggling charges.

Dutch authorities said on Monday the gang was linked to the group responsible for the deaths of 58 illegal immigrants who suffocated to death in June 2000 while being smuggled into England.

Prosecutors said the nine were arrested last week during raids on houses in Rotterdam. They also found 25 illegal immigrants, six firearms and 60,000 euros ($56,280).

Spokesman Johan Klunder told reporters: "The people convicted in the Dover investigation were subcontractors, who were responsible for the actual transport from the Netherlands to England, not for their transportation to the Netherlands. The new suspects are part of the umbrella organisation."

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Three of the arrested suspects were alleged ringleaders of the operation based in Rotterdam, The Associated Press reported.

They are alleged to have arranged accommodation in Rotterdam safe houses for the Chinese immigrants on their arrival from eastern Europe, then demanded more money to send them on to Britain.

AP reported that the operation was set up in 1999 and charged an estimated 35,000 euros per person for smuggling to the Netherlands via eastern Europe.

The nine accused, eight of whom were residing illegally in the Netherlands, will appear before a Rotterdam court on Friday.

In another raid in early May, 52 Chinese were discovered in a Rotterdam house, but no smugglers were arrested because prosecutors had not completed their investigations.

Seven men were convicted in The Netheralnds in May 2001 for their part in the deaths of the 58 illegal immigrants who died en route to England. They were jailed for up to nine years.

The Dutch driver of the truck, Perry Wacker, was sentenced to 14 years in prison for manslaughter by a British court

The 58 suffocated in an air-tight container of a cargo truck. Only two immigrants survived.