Why are we such mugs? Take a deep breath and read the 25-year saga of two illegal Iraqi migrants who became people-smuggling kingpins, ran rings round our legal system and cost taxpayers £1million

Two men carrying a green and white Asda shopping bag stuffed with £16,000 in cash drive slowly along Gillette Way, an industrial estate in Reading.They stop near a parked lorry and hand its Romanian driver the plastic bag. All are about to go their separate ways when officers from the National Crime Agency (NCA) swoop.Unbeknown to the men, they had all been under surveillance for weeks by the agency - dubbed Britain's FBI - which had been investigating a pernicious people-smuggling ring bringing a 'large number' of migrants, who were hidden in lorries bound for Dover, into the UK.The criminal masterminds behind the operation were the two men carrying the cash. In the words of a judge, they were 'caught red-handed' paying the driver for sneaking four migrants into the UK in his truck on a P&O ferry the day before.After being arrested, one of the gang leaders gave what was described as a 'frankly ridiculous' explanation for another £7,800, which was found in his jacket, saying he had earned it through washing cars.The other, who tried to flee, claimed he had not even seen the lorry because he had been searching for a toilet and had been so desperate to go, he had screwed up his eyes in pain. It was a 'ludicrous' excuse, said the judge.The NCA officers believed they had scored a major victory in the war against the smuggling gangs. Instead, thanks to blunders by prosecutors and the efforts of highly paid human rights lawyers, their short-lived triumph turned into a ten-year legal battle which is still winding its way through the system. This is a story as shocking as it is farcical. People-smuggling gangs charge thousands of pounds to bring migrants into Britain (file photo of migrants trying to break into a lorry bound for the UK) High Court judge Mr Justice Jay (pictured) who presided over the Special Immigration Appeals Commission hearing that rejected the pair's latest appealSince they first came to the attention of law enforcement, these two people-smuggling kingpins have run rings around the legal system in a charade which is believed to have cost British taxpayers more than £1million so far. For this pair, who appear to be the very embodiment of the sort of individuals being targeted by the Government's 'smash the gangs' strategy, are using every trick in the book to avoid being kicked out of Britain.Despite arriving in Britain unlawfully 25 years ago, they are still living here freely. Incredulous judges said the men should have been locked up years ago, while the Home Office, which is trying to deport them, said they had 'lied to every public authority they have ever come into contact with'.No fewer than 13 publicly funded barristers - four of them KCs - appeared at the most recent hearing into their case, an appeal which they lost. The two men are now appealing the ruling.High Court judge Mr Justice Jay, who chaired the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) hearing which threw out their last appeal, branded the case unprecedented.One of the most jaw-dropping aspects of the case is that the authorities believe that these two men may still be smuggling migrants into Britain and sending the proceeds back home to Iraq. It is even thought that Isis terrorist group supporters could be among those they have smuggled into the UK.The brazen pair live with their families and have seven children between them. One of them has criminal convictions for car insurance fraud, while the other has been found guilty of evading duty on cigarettes. In addition, one of the men and his wife have been convicted of benefits fraud.After examining the legal papers relating to this extraordinary case, the Daily Mail has pieced together the story of how these two men are making a mockery of a system which was designed to support genuine refugees.The pair are Iraqi Kurds who came to Britain illegally in 2001. After their asylum claims failed, they were later given indefinite leave to remain under the Home Office's Legacy Programme, which was set up to clear a backlog of asylum cases, and became British citizens.They came to the attention of the NCA in 2016 when it launched Operation Dahoon, a massive - and costly - investigation which involved 350 officers from its ranks, the North East Regional Special Operations Unit and five police forces, including Cleveland, Northumbria, Sussex and the Metropolitan Police, together with French, Belgian and Dutch law enforcers.Officers tracked the gang to camps in northern France - including the so-called 'Jungle' near Calais - and, after monitoring its operations, concluded it had smuggled 'large numbers' of migrants into Britain using lorries.In a remarkable twist, after successfully applying for an order to protect their identities, the pair have been allowed to keep their names secret as their case wends its way through the system, so were referred to by the panel only as 'G4' and 'G5'. Migrants sit near the A16 highway as they try to access the Channel Tunnel (file photo) The NCA assessed that G4, who is 49, had a 'controlling, leadership role' and G5, aged 50, an 'organising role'. Evidence included a notebook which revealed that they charged fees of about £8,000 to smuggle someone into the country. One entry showed that a group of four people paid £38,000, while another appeared to refer to eight migrants paying £58,000.Lorry drivers, mostly from Eastern Europe, were enlisted by a recruiter in Hastings. One, a Macedonian, told French police he was offered £2,500 to £3,000 for every migrant he smuggled into Britain.It was 'a highly sophisticated operation with lots of moving parts to thwart law enforcement', David Blundell, the Home Office's barrister, told an SIAC hearing last November, which was presided over by Mr Justice Jay and two other panellists.Mr Blundell said that G4 and G5 had 'lied to every public authority with which they [had] come into contact from the first day they arrived here', and had defrauded the taxman and 'cheated the state'.The pair were first arrested in February 2017 and then again in February the following year. But in March 2019, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decided not to charge them, the SIAC was told. Mr Justice Jay wrote: 'We have to say that we are firmly of the view that the CPS reached the wrong conclusion in March 2019.'Had they been prosecuted, as they ought to have been... they would have faced substantial prison sentences.'Instead, the men remained at large and, in August 2020, G4's British passport was renewed. However, the NCA still suspected the pair of wrongdoing and, in October that year, began examining whether they could be stripped of their British citizenship in a bid to 'disrupt' the gang.The Home Secretary agreed, and formally removed their British citizenship on August 30, 2022, while the men were on holiday in Iraq. At last, it seemed, Britain was rid of them. If they could not be jailed for their crimes, at least they had been banished from our shores.Astonishingly, they were both soon back in Britain. G5 returned less than a fortnight after his citizenship was cancelled, arriving via Dusseldorf in Germany, Dublin and Belfast.Five months later, G4 followed him, returning to Britain in February 2023 after apparently using his revoked British passport to reach Ireland, then taking a ferry from Belfast to Stranraer in Scotland.Graeme Chisholm, the NCA's lead investigator, told Mr Justice Jay and his panellists that G4 and G5 considered themselves above the law and that G5 was 'likely still involved' in people smuggling. As he told SIAC, given the large sums of money to be made, 'Why would they cease?'The two men gave evidence to the hearing, as they sought to get their British citizenship reinstated. They deployed a 'cut-throat defence', each blaming the other for the crimes they were accused of. But their machiavellian strategy backfired. When the SIAC published its ruling, in March this year, it concluded: 'We were entirely satisfied that both appellants were incredible and unreliable witnesses'.G4's evidence had been 'vague, evasive and mendacious' and parts were 'completely incapable of belief', the panel stated, while G5 was 'so lacking in credibility or reliability that we are unable to accept anything he said'. A French riot police officer (CRS) stands as illegal migrants wait to attempt to hide in lorries heading for England, in the French northern harbour of Calais (file photo)Five barristers were paid to represent the two men. Another four helped the Home Office to present the case for deportation. And four security-cleared Special Advocates were also employed to represent the men in 'closed' sessions, which allowed the NCA to explain sensitive security matters to the judges which could not be heard in public.The Daily Mail has calculated that the legal fees incurred by the 13-day hearing and other hearings, plus the cost of the NCA's ten-year investigation, have left taxpayers with a bill in excess of £1million.And the painful process is not over because the men are still fighting to remain in the UK, using the 1998 Human Rights Act.Between them, G4 and G5 fought their last appeal on no fewer than 28 grounds. They challenged the loss of citizenship and said that being sent back to Iraq would breach their human right 'to respect for family life', as they would be left destitute and could be thrown into Kurdish jails.The SIAC rejected their claims, saying that for the 'vast majority' living in Iraq's Kurdistan region, life was safe.G4 gave what were described as 'highly evasive' answers about family members he could live with in Iraq, claiming he couldn't remember them. Then he suddenly claimed - under cross-examination - that he was an orphan. But the panel found that, in fact, he had a large extended family in Iraq, including siblings, uncles, aunts and cousins.G5 admitted he had family he could live with, but whined: 'What would be my quality of life?'The SIAC concluded that 'a lot of' the illicit earnings the gang had made from smuggling migrants had been sent back to Iraq.While G4 denied that he was planning to buy property there, the NCA's officers found business cards for Iraqi estate agents at his home. The panel said: 'We do not believe him.'Ironically, while G4 and G5 continue their fight to stay in Britain, the only member of their smuggling gang to have been successfully prosecuted has managed to escape justice.Muhammad Zada, 43, from Middlesbrough, was jailed for 20 years in 2024 in his absence, having fled before his trial.Ruling that G4 and G5's deportation was in the public interest, the SIAC said the pair 'had no regard whatsoever for anyone or anything other than themselves: they simply wanted to make considerable sums of money'.The Daily Mail has submitted Freedom of Information requests to try to find out exactly how much this whole debacle has cost taxpayers.The affair has echoes of previous cases, including that of the 'hate cleric' Abu Qatada. The eight-year legal battle he fought against deportation had cost taxpayers £1.7million by the time he was put on a plane to Jordan in 2013.In 2019, Shamima Begum, who left Britain at 15 to join Islamic State in Syria, received £246,000 in legal aid to fight the loss of her citizenship.Meanwhile, the costly saga involving G4 and G5 continues as the case grinds its way through the system, with their latest appeal due to be heard within the next few weeks.As a symbol of the utter dysfunction of Britain's soft-touch migration and justice systems, their story could hardly be more devastating.