Two Albanian citizens who used a plane to to illegally transport economic migrants from northern France to an airport in the city of Essex in Great Britain, were sentenced to prison, DPA reported, quoted by BTA.
Mirteza Hillaj, 50, and Kreshnik Kadena, 37, both of east London, were found guilty in March of facilitating breaches of UK immigration law. They received a total of five years and two months in prison, Britain's National Crime Agency reported.
Their sentence follows an eight-year investigation by the British agency under the code name "Operation Micropus", targeting an Albanian organized crime group involved in facilitating illegal migration, money laundering, drug trafficking and the supply of false documents.
Albanian migrants pay "up to £10,000" (11,685 euros) for transit on the territory of Great Britain and then "a few hundred more pounds" for preparing false documents, adds the British National Crime Agency.