A tattoo artist set up a 'travel agency for the desperate', charging Iranian asylum seekers thousands to help them flee the country to feed his gambling addiction.
Behnam Farzaneh-Baghbanan, 40, of Salford, has been locked up for eight-and-a-half years for being a 'ringleader' in a gang which charged adults and children 'extortionate' amounts to arrange transport out of the country.
Their journeys were often 'hazardous' and 'distressing', a judge said.
Adult couples would be charged £11,000, while children would have to pay £6,000 for the journey.
They would be given fake IDs and have flights booked for them from destinations around the world, before arriving in the UK.
But a court heard the flights were often the 'last part of the journey'.
Before getting on a plane, one asylum seeker travelled from Iran to Turkey on foot and by boat, arriving in Istanbul where he had to be 'hidden'.
Farzaneh-Baghbanan, an Iranian who himself came to the UK in 2012 hidden in the back of a lorry, arranged 216 flights for asylum seekers to enter the UK.
Describing the plot as 'highly sophisticated', Judge Clement Goldstone QC told him: "You profited shamefully and mercilessly from the plight of your desperate fellow countrymen.
"It is an irony that you yourself had sought asylum in this country, and had experienced the trials and tribulations of such a perilous journey."
Farzaneh-Baghbanan also recruited three men to help launder money he received.
Mohammed Naderi, 37, Mojitaba Salehi, 38, and Kaveh Sharifat, 40, all received suspended sentences.
After arriving in the UK, Farzaneh-Baghbanan started a 'successful' business working as a tattoo artist.
But his work couldn't pay for his gambling addiction, and he became involved in the plot.
Between January 2015 and December 2016, more than £166,000 was deposited into his bank account.
The Home Office were in April 2016 after alerted after 81 passengers arrived from France, Spain and Belgium into the UK, using forged documents and claiming asylum.
A 'painstaking' investigation pointed officers towards Farzaneh-Baghbanan.
As well as being given false identity documents, asylum seekers were often given 'coaching manuals to maximise the chance of obtaining asylum', Manchester Crown Court heard.
They arrived in the UK from destinations including Alicante, Marseille, Florence, Rome and Nice, and also from Beirut and Istanbul.
Once in the country, they were advised to approach the authorities and reveal their true identities.
The people who made it to the UK were granted asylum, the court heard.
The judge said it was 'impossible to say' how many asylum claims were 'genuine'.
Farzaneh-Baghbanan was described as being the 'ringleader' in the UK, with another man who has not been caught.
After being arrested at his home in Salford in December 2016, Farzaneh-Baghbanan fled the country and was only caught two years later in Greece.
He was extradited back to the UK and later pleaded guilty to conspiring to help asylum seekers enter the UK.
His fellow Iranians Salehi, of Kennerley Court, Stockport; Sharifat, of Stanley Road, Whalley Range; and Naderi, of Clayton Court, Leeds; pleaded guilty to converting criminal property.
Sharifat, who worked at a takeaway in Chorlton, said he had been 'misled' by Farzaneh-Baghbanan, and had agreed to be involved after he had showed him 'genuine kindness' when he came to the UK himself.
All three said they were told that having money pass through their accounts would help their credit rating.
