Members of an organised criminal gang, who tried to smuggle 69 Albanians into the UK inside a converted fishing trawler, have been jailed for a total of 35 years and nine months between them.
The men, from Eastern Europe and Israel, had bought the dilapidated trawler ‘Svanic’ for 20,000 euros in Latvia.
The 30-meter trawler was intercepted on 17 November last year, as it headed towards Great Yarmouth from the Belgian port of Ostend.
Jailing four members of the gang at Chelmsford Crown Court, the trial judge told the men, he had no doubt that the trip to Great Yarmouth was to be the first of many.
UK based organiser, Arturas Jusas, 35, from south London, who admitted conspiring to assist unlawful immigration at an earlier hearing, has been sentenced to nine years and nine months.
The court heard he had a very significant leading role in the operation.Prior to the attempt to smuggle migrants onboard the Svanic, he had been involved in people smuggling using lorries for a number of years.
Described as a career criminal, he had 17 previous convictions for a variety of offences.Latvian national Aleksandrs Gulpe, 44 and 56-year-old Ukrainian national Igor Kosyi were both found guilty of conspiring to assist unlawful immigration at an earlier hearing.
Gulpe could not attend court today because of a Covid outbreak at the prison housing him, but fellow gang member Kosyi was sentenced to seven years.
Both men were crew members, who were arrested when the Svanic was taken to the port of Harwich in the early hours of 18 November 2020.Kfir Ivgi, 39, from Finchley in north London was given 10 years in prison and Sergejs Kuliss, 32, from east London was jailed for 9 years.
When Border Force and National Crime Agency Officers inspected the boat, they found the 69 illegal immigrants crammed into the hold.
Among them was a convicted murderer and a serious drugs offender.UK authorities had been alerted to suspicions about the vessel, when it ran aground off Sweden a fortnight before the smuggling trip.
The vessel ran aground for a second time before finally heading to Belgium and collecting its illegal cargo.
The National Crime Agency said the fishing boat, built 60 years ago, had undergone a crude conversion to carry passengers.
Prosecutors said those onboard were in “real danger” as a later inspection of the Svanic “displayed a multitude of faults.
The vessel’s lifeboat had not been inspected in over 6 years and was only capable of carrying 20 people.The conditions below deck were filthy and cramped and the boat also only carried 20 life jackets.
The trial judge said: “This was an operation on a very significant scale.
“You were caught at an early stage.
"This was, I have no doubt, to have been one of many trips."
The court heard that some of the migrants were in the position of guards, with access to knives and even guns.
Authorities said the operation would have been highly profitable, and the first trip alone would have netted them around a million pounds.
