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A man who is suspected of having smuggled thousands of illegal migrants to the UK via small boats has been arrested. A BBC investigation named Kardo Jaf, who operates under the alias Kardo Ranya, as a person of interest behind the transportation of thousands of migrants hoping to reach Britain by crossing the English Channel in dangerous vessels.

It's reported Jaf has now been arrested on suspicion of human trafficking offences in Iraqi Kurdistan. According to the BBC investigation, the 28-year-old Iraqi Kurd had run an operation using a number of aliases.

When previously confronted by the channel with the allegations, Jaf denied being a smuggler and said he only advised migrants. He was adamant he had not committed any offence.

According to the BBC, Jaf is being held by the Kurdistan Regional Security Agency as investigations continue. Journalists Sue Mitchell and Rob Lawrie tell the story of how they pursued Jaf in the Radio 4 podcast Intrigue: To Catch A King.

Kurdish MP Dr Muthana Nader told the BBC: "This is a powerful network that all comes back to Ranya (Jaf)."

He added that he believed 70% of illegal migration to the UK was being controlled from the town.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) said on Tuesday that a suspected people smuggler had been arrested on May 13. The agency did not name Jaf. NCA Director General Operations, Rob Jones, said at the weekend that the NCA was taking the fight to smugglers operating in Iraq.

He said: "The NCA's role is to target the organised gangs behind people smuggling, and we use our full range of law enforcement tactics to disrupt and dismantle networks wherever they operate, preventing harm to those they exploit for profit, protecting lives and the UK's border security.

"Tackling organised immigration crime remains a top priority for the NCA, and we are putting more resource into targeting the criminal networks behind it than ever before.

"We are also taking the fight against the gangs outside of Europe to locations like Iraq and Libya, targeting criminal networks who are operating in locations where they previously thought themselves untouchable."