Albanian Pair Found Guilty of Using Plane to Smuggle Economic Migrants

Two Albanian nationals who used a plane to illegally transport economic migrants from northern France to an aerodrome in Essex have been found guilty of people smuggling. Myrteza Hilaj, 50, and Kreshnik Kadena, 37, both of Leyton, east London, were found guilty on Friday at Southwark Crown Court of facilitating the commission of a breach of immigration law. The convictions followed an eight-year investigation by the National Crime Agency (NCA), 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 economic migrants in 2016 and 2017 were “linked back mainly to Hilaj”—three involving light aircraft and others with migrants getting in the back of lorries....