FIVE men have been convicted for people smuggling.

A Leytonstone home was raided as part of a police crack down on people smuggling.

A series of dawn raids took place at 15 addresses across London and Birmingham in January.

The searches took place in Leytonstone, Tottenham, Peckham, Palmers Green, Enfield, Holloway and Kidderminster.

Halil Karakus, 28, of Grampian House, Plevna Road, Edmonton, was found guilty of facilitating illegal immigration at Southwark Crown Court yesterday, after being picked up in a dawn raid in January.

He was part of Turkish network which worked with Chinese smugglers to traffic Chinese people into the UK in extremely cramped and dangerous conditions in lorries, boats and trains.

They charged desperate Chinese nationals up to £21,000 to smuggle them into the country.

Mustafa Gunduz, 49, Halil Karakus, 28, Musa Hurman, 49, all of north London, and Muhammed Ozen, 32, of South Ockendon, in Essex, have also been convicted of immigration offences.

They will be sentenced alongside a fifth man, Eser Tasci, 26, of Essex, at Southwark Crown Court on Wednesday.

Six other gang members have already been jailed as a result of the police operation.