A man convicted of smuggling teenage girls for sexual exploitation has been jailed for 14 years.
But while Border Agency officials believe the investigation disrupted a significant organised crime group, one of the girls involved is still missing.
Odosa Usiobaifo, 35, of Keats Close in Ponders End, was sentenced at Isleworth Crown Court yesterday following a four-week trial.
The jury heard how border force officers stopped two Nigerian girls, aged 14 and 15, at London Heathrow Airport in September and November 2011.
The teenagers, who were using fake passports and posing as adults, were trying to travel from Lagos to Paris, but it became clear during interviews that they were being trafficked for sexual exploitation.
The girls were put in foster care in Sussex on April 6 last year, but were reported missing by their carers.
Usiobaifo had arranged to meet the girls to hand over fake passports and tickets and put them on a flight to Spain.
One girl returned to the UK to be put in care after being refused entry into Spain, but the other girl is still missing.
Usiobaifo was arrested at his flat in Enfield on September 3 last year with his 25-year-old partner Katie Igha.
The jury found him guilty yesterday of conspiring to traffic for the purposes of sexual exploitation.
He pleaded guilty to conspiring to facilitate illegal immigration earlier on in the trial.
They acquitted Ms Igha of trafficking, and failed to reach a verdict on a charge of conspiring to facilitate.
Senior investigating officer Jonathan Bush, of the UK Border Agency’s criminal and financial investigation team, said: “We believe our investigation has disrupted a significant organised crime group suspected of being involved in the trafficking of young women into Europe through London.
“The ordeal these girls went through was horrific and tragically one of them remains missing.”
Chief Inspector Jo Banks, who led the Sussex Police investigation into the girls’ disappearance, said: “The two girls went through a turbulent ordeal, clearly aware of what was intended for them, and under the control of the traffickers. We will continue to search for girl who remains missing.”