A PEOPLE-SMUGGLING fugitive was arrested in Sussex under a European arrest warrant.

Khanh Chan, who is also known as Khanh Ngoc Nguyen, was part of a group responsible for trafficking people into the UK from Vietnam.

He was convicted in his absence by a court in Paris and sentenced to eight years in prison.

It related to smuggling between 2015 and 2017.

But the 39-year-old went on the run and was thought to be in London.

The National Crime Agency traced him to an address in Bexhill, where he was arrested on Thursday.

Now Chan faces extradition to France to serve the sentence, and will appear before Westminster Magistrates’ Court tomorrow.

NCA boss Steve Reynolds said: “We believe Chan was a significant player in an organised crime group responsible for smuggling migrants across the globe.

“Working with our partners in France we managed to locate him here in the UK and will now seek his extradition so he can serve a prison sentence for offences he has already been convicted of in a French court.

“People smugglers treat migrants like a commodity, and the tragic events last year in Essex demonstrated how little care for their safety these kinds of gangs have.

“We’re determined to do all we can to disrupt and dismantle the organised criminal networks involved in this type of offending.”