A human trafficking gang leader who helped former soldier Daniel Khalife evade capture after his escape from HMP Wandsworth has been jailed for four-and-a-half years. Adeel Khan, 32, worked alongside Khalife in the prison kitchen and arranged for £400 in cash to be delivered to him after he broke out in September 2023 by clinging to the underside of a food delivery lorry using a sling made from prison trousers. The case matters because Khalife had been awaiting trial on charges of spying for Iran and staging a bomb hoax, and prosecutors said Khan's assistance allowed him to disguise himself, buy a phone to contact his Iranian handlers, and remain at large for far longer than he otherwise could have.

Khan arranged for Imran Chowdhury, a 26-year-old Telegraph web developer, to withdraw the cash and hand it to Khalife in Richmond, though Chowdhury was later acquitted after a jury accepted he had not recognised Khalife, who wore a cap and mask. Khan, who had prior drug convictions, was separately identified by French investigators as the leader of a trafficking network smuggling migrants from eastern Europe towards the Channel, and had been linked to a cache of firearms and ammunition, as well as boats and life jackets intercepted near the French coast; he was convicted in absentia in France before being sentenced in Britain over the Khalife case at Snaresbrook Crown Court.