A joint operation between Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) and the Guardia Civil in Spain has led to the arrest of seven men from an Albanian organised crime group who were allegedly involved in smuggling illegal immigrants into the UK on board freight lorries.
The NCA said the gang brought in around 50 illegal immigrants—mainly Albanians—on ferries between the Spanish ports of Bilbao and Santander and Portsmouth, Southampton, and Liverpool in England.
Some of the Albanians had flown directly to Spain from Tirana, while other illegal immigrants had been found and recruited in camps near Bilbao and Santander.
The Spanish prosecutors said the fee charged was between 3,000 ($2,900) and 15,000 euros ($14,500) and the gang provided the illegal immigrants with food and accommodation before smuggling them on board the ferries in the back of lorries….