ABC pic of Captain Emad
The ABC can reveal that people smugglers connected with a deadly disaster at sea are now residing in Australia under refugee visas.
A Four Corners investigation has uncovered evidence that at least six experienced people smugglers came to Australia by boat, won refugee status and were released from detention to cities across Australia.
At least some of them went on to set up lucrative people-smuggling deals from inside Australia.
The man behind establishing people smugglers in Australia, Abu Ali al Kuwaiti, is also linked to an asylum boat that disappeared on its way to Australia.
In November 2010, 97 men, women and children boarded a fishing boat in North Jakarta, but disappeared on the ocean, never to be heard from again.
The passengers were mostly from Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan.
No-one knows the name of the lost boat or reported it missing, and the people smugglers who sent the boat lied about the loss to collect final payments from the relatives.
The operation was run by a network of agents working for Abu Ali al Kuwaiti, who is based in Indonesia, and another smuggler.
At the beginning of 2010, Abu Ali al Kuwaiti and other top Iraqi smugglers met in Jakarta to discuss expanding their business in Australia. They planned to send a group of their best operators to Australia by boat.
Two inside sources have confirmed that among those at the meeting was powerful smuggler, Captain Emad, also known as Abu Khalid, who is now based in Canberra.
Read/watch the full ABC story here
• ABC Online, Thursday: Captain Emad does a runner
