A man has been arrested in Eccles accused of being part of a criminal network smuggling 20 migrants a night into the UK.
The National Crime Agency, in a joint op with Greater Manchester Police, arrested the 37-year-old at an undisclosed address in Eccles on Thursday.
The man was named by the BBC as Iraq-born Shamel Zorab.
He is wanted in Belgium and is now expected to appear before Westminster Magistrates Court.
Mr Zorab was subject to a European Arrest Warrant – meaning any country where he was found would have been asked to extradite him to face trial.
A second man, Sleman Ahmed, 33, was detained in Bordesley Green in Birmingham.
The arrests follow a joint operation involving the NCA and Belgian Federal Police, looking into a Kurdish criminal network suspected of smuggling people into the UK in lorries.
The migrants, including Iraqis, Iranians, Afghans, Indians, Pakistanis and Albanians, would be loaded into trucks at motorway service stations in Belgium before attempting to cross the Channel.
The two arrested in the UK are accused of being in direct contact with other members of the network and collecting fees from migrants successfully smuggled into the country.
Ten people have already been arrested in Belgium and await trial there.
Colin Williams, NCA branch operations manager, said: “We believe this crime group is involved in attempting to smuggle people into the UK on an almost daily basis, and our co-operation with the Belgian authorities on this investigation continues.
“With our international partners we will continue to disrupt criminals involved in organised immigration crime, making it harder for them to operate across the UK border and abroad.”
