Smuggling ring exposed

A gang is smuggling hundreds of young boys from Africa into Britain, we can reveal.

The sophisticated trafficking operation has seen the children brought to this country to be sold into slavery and even prostitution.

Full details of the operation have come to light after an Evening Standard investigation into gang leader Pedro Miguel da Costa Damba.

He smuggled dozens of children aged from nine to 18 from Angola and Portugal into this country - promising their parents that they would have a "better life". A Portuguese court has jailed him for six and a half years.

He was involved with at least 50 boys who were smuggled into the country between 1997 and 2000.

But Portuguese authorities now believe that at least twice that number were involved, the Evening Standard has discovered.

Damba travelled several times a month, smuggling children into the UK in small groups, either pretending they were his own or claiming that he was escorting them to a British football training camp.

Police sources in Portugal say six other people - including two women - have been targeted in a continuing investigation and believe the gang is still operating, smuggling more children through Spain and Germany.

Scotland Yard also believes Damba could provide vital evidence into the murder of a five-year-old African boy whose limbless torso was found floating in the Thames almost two years ago.

Detectives investigating the discovery of the body of the boy - whom they called Adam - have questioned Damba at a high-security Lisbon prison.

Detective Sergeant Nick Chalmers, of the murder squad, said: "There is no doubt that there is a highly organised network which is involved in trafficking large numbers of children from Africa into Europe."

Damba led a gang based in rundown estates in Lisbon which smuggled young children from Angola and the Portuguese Angolan community into Britain, becoming rich in the process.

One senior police source in Portugal said Damba appears to have been able to breach Britain's customs and immigration law with ease.

"I would say it is naive to talk about 50 boys - hundreds is more likely," the source told the Standard.

He added: "Damba was part of that network but there are many more like him. It is a highly lucrative trade."

Damba was arrested last March in Portugal for fraud after forging paperwork. He was seized after an airport official in Portugal became suspicious of the number of flights he was taking from Faro to Heathrow in the company of different children.

Detectives decided to question Damba about the "Adam" murder following the arrest in Glasgow last February of a Nigerian asylum seeker. The woman has denied being connected to the five-year-old's death, which Scotland Yard believe was a ritual, or muti, killing, but it is believed Damba's name emerged as she was investigated.

One police source said: "We believe Damba may have vital information about this case. Although he is not a direct suspect since he was already in jail when 'Adam' arrived in Britain, he is a key figure in the smuggling of young boys and he may well know how and where 'Adam' was delivered."

The dismembered torso, wearing only a pair of orange shorts, was found floating near Tower Bridge in September 2001.

Evidence has convinced police that the boy was a ritual murder victim. Forensic investigations revealed that he was fed a potion before being killed and detectives are using pioneering scientific methods to confirm its ingredients of minerals, vegetable matter and tiny pellets of pure gold come from Africa.