A TAXI driver appeared in court in Antrim yesterday accused of involvement in the trafficking of people from outside the EU.
The arrest of 51-year-old “transport taxi driver” Colin Rutherford last Thursday coincided with searches carried out in the Republic by An Garda Síochána’s National Immigration Bureau during which a 12-year-old Nigerian girl was found at Castleknock in Co Dublin.
However, Mr Rutherford, from Glenmore Walk, Hilden, near Lisburn, Co Antrim, faces no charge in relation to the girl nor was his arrest specifically related to her finding during searches which were also carried out in Louth, Dublin, Meath and Kildare.
In all Rutherford faces six charges of assisting in the unlawful immigration of persons from outside the Euopean Union and conveying them to the Irish Republic between November 9th last year and May 24th last.
Four of the charges related to Belfast International Airport, while the other two allege the smuggling of people was conducted through Belfast’s George Best City Airport.
Antrim Magistrate Robert Alcorn freed Rutherford on continuing bail on condition that he does not enter any airport or dock, stays within the jurisdiction, in particular does not go to the Irish Republic, does not contact any witness and only uses his taxi to transport either himself or close family members.
Mr Rutherford, whose arrest results from a joint proactive operation by the PSNI and Garda against organised immigration crime, is to appear before magistrates again on July 29th.