The route used to traffic 39 migrants from Zeebrugge to Purfleet bears close similarities to a heroin-smuggling route used by Northern Ireland paramilitary gangs, it has been claimed.
A source told Belfast Live: “That route and the network involved bears the hallmarks of a loyalist heroin-smuggling route.
“But there are also links to well-known republican families who these days are very active in smuggling.”
Despite their historic sectarian differences, there are instances when former republican and loyalist paramilitaries-turned-gangsters co-operate and co-ordinate their criminality.
Police are understood to be investigating links to two crime families with paramilitary ties north and south of the Irish border who are notorious for smuggling alcohol and tobacco.
The information comes after the bodies of 38 adults and one teenager were discovered inside the container of a refrigerated lorry at an industrial estate in Grays in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Police have arrested driver Mo Robinson of Portadown, Northern Ireland on suspicion of murder and a second 48-year-old Northern Ireland man was arrested at Stanstead Airport on Friday.
He is being questioned on suspicion of conspiracy to traffic people and on suspicion of manslaughter.
An Essex Police spokesperson said this arrest "follows the arrests of a 38-year-old man and a 38-year-old woman from Warrington during warrants executed in Cheshire overnight on Thursday” on suspicion of the same offences.
The couple have been named as Irish woman Joanna Maher and her husband Thomas - a haulier.
Meanwhile, Northern Ireland trucker Mo Robinson remains in police custody.
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