A month after the woman was discovered in the car, Etherington was stopped by border guards who found she was hiding another woman behind the dashboard of her vehicle.
Her husband Curtis was then linked to the operation prompting the Home Office to launch a wider investigation, which involved police forces in Spain, Greece and Ireland.
A breakthrough was made when in November 2023, Mukhlis Jamal Hamadamin, was arrested at Manchester Airport.
It came after a parcel from Greece containing a fake Greek driving licence addressed to a property in Bolton was intercepted, with Hamadamin’s phone number listed as the contact.
On the phone, evidence including hundreds of images of passports and boarding passes, messages about false documents, and videos believed to have been recorded inside a forgery factory in Greece were found.
All eight will next appear at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court on 29 January.
Dame Angela Eagle, the minister for border security and asylum, said the case exposed the “ruthless tactics” of people smugglers.
“They have no regard for human life and exploit vulnerable individuals solely for profit, putting them in incredibly dangerous situations,” she said.
