Two men who used a plane to smuggle people from northern France to an aerodrome in Essex have been jailed.
Myrteza Hilaj and Kreshnik Kadena, both from Leyton in east London, were found guilty at Southwark crown court in March of facilitating the commission of a breach of immigration law.
The Albanian nationals were sentenced to a combined total of five years and two months in prison, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said.
Their convictions followed an eight-year investigation by the agency, codenamed Operation Micropus, into an Albanian organised crime group involved in facilitating illegal migration, money laundering, drug trafficking and the supply of counterfeit documents.
The NCA said at least nine journeys of Albanian people in 2016 and 2017 were “linked back mainly to Hilaj” – three involving light aircraft and others with people getting in the back of lorries.
Kadena acted as his assistant and was primarily involved in smuggling people using the light aircraft.
The group’s pilot would take off from North Weald airfield in Epping Forest, Essex, and fly to Le Touquet airport on the coast of northern France to collect three to four people to smuggle into the UK on each trip.
The pilot would then fly to Stapleford aerodrome, also in Epping Forest, where the passengers would leave the plane and be collected by Kadena.
Each trafficked person would pay “up to £10,000” for transit into the UK, then “a few hundred pounds extra” for fake documents, the NCA said.
After a police interception in France on 17 July 2017, the NCA said Hilaj and Kadena, both in the UK legally, were seen having a “fallout meeting at a local pub”. During the trial Kadena had suggested this was instead his “birthday drinks”.
The NCA’s senior investigating officer Saju Sasikumar said: “Operation Micropus has seen us uncover and dismantle an organised crime group who not only facilitated illegal migration, but provided a complete service to those they helped into the country, ensuring they could gain work and access services illegally.
“It demonstrates our resolve to go after all those involved in people smuggling, who risk the lives of others in pursuit of profit.”
