AN Albanian drug dealer has already tried to sneak into the UK by a back door bus route just weeks after he was deported.
The gang member, who had served 20 months in a British prison for cannabis cultivation, was among those caught by Home Office immigration enforcers in a huge nationwide crackdown this week.
4
4
The Sun on Sunday joined the team on patrol as they worked with high-level intelligence officers to snare criminals wanted for murder, gang leaders, and crooks carrying £400,000 in cash who had been stopped trying to sneak into the open Common Travel Area between Ireland and Northern Ireland.
Home Office staff worked with the Police Service of Northern Ireland to stop the convicted Albanian gangster as he travelled on a coach from Dublin to Belfast, having flown into the Republic on a fake Greek passport from Albania earlier that day.
Two hours earlier the team had received intelligence about two potential immigration offenders who had just boarded a bus in the Irish capital heading north.
An hour before the pair and the team crossed paths, checks revealed that one of them was the gang member, who has served 20 months behind bars in the UK.
He was deported just last month and was already trying to illegally re-enter the country and fly under the radar of law enforcement.
After a race across town to the city centre bus stop, we arrived just in time to join forces with the PSNI, who had been briefed.
The coach pulled up and six police officers stormed aboard.
Bewildered commuters and other passengers filed off before the pair of suspects were led out by cops for questioning.
The drug dealer was remanded in custody for breaking his deportation order while the pal he was travelling with was detained by immigration enforcement, pending removal from the UK.
Thanks to an agreement between the UK Government and Albania, the pair can easily be sent back on a regular removal flight — and 6,000 Albanians have already been deported in the past year.
The operation was one of dozens carried out with the National Crime Agency, the Garda, the PSNI, HM Revenues And Customs, Interpol, and regional police forces to disrupt organised crime groups this week.
A total of 31 arrests were made over three days of the operation as offenders attempted to abuse the route into the UK.
Fourteen cases were immigration offences involving seven Albanians, while the other offenders were from Jordan, Ukraine, Georgia, IranSyria, Sudan and China.
The day before the bus arrests, the same team had apprehended a Somali national using asylum accommodation in central Belfast, on suspicion of a gangland murder in Denmark in 2022.
The Sun on Sunday joined the teams at Belfast City Airport’s departure area. It did not take long before they spotted a man in a cafe near the entrance to the airport, who was clearly apprehensive about being questioned.
After telling officers that he had left his passport in the taxi, it emerged that he was carrying three fake IDs — two Austrian and one Polish — all in different names. He was charged with having false documents and remanded in custody.
4
4
The Good Friday Agreement ensures there are no security barriers or checkpoints on the land border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
Criminals seeking to reach the UK are exploiting this by flying into Dublin from mainland Europe on visitor visas or soon-to-expire work permits, before driving north.
From there they can disappear by catching a ferry across the Irish Sea to Liverpool or Loch Ryan in Scotland or the Isle of Man.
Cheapest option
Flights from Belfast to Luton Airport are among the most abused by those wanting to exploit the Common Travel Area because they are often the cheapest option.
With no border control before they board the next ferry or flight, it means there is no record of them entering the British mainland.
Many who are not able to work legally or claim benefits end up in debt to organised crime groups who trap them in shady businesses or county line drug gangs.
Johnny Evans, HM Inspector of Immigration for the Home Office in Belfast, told The Sun on Sunday that the teams had been targeting suspects who posed a threat to the UK’s national security.
Mr Evans said: “We’ve disrupted crime groups using the road networks in Northern Ireland, using the airports and ports the crime groups are trying to smuggle people through to facilitate their illegal immigration into the United Kingdom. We are taking action day in, day out to ensure we stay a step ahead of these criminals.”
Minister for Border Security and Asylum, Dame Angela Eagle, said: “This government will not stand by as criminal gangs exploit vulnerable people, risking their lives and giving them false hopes of a better life in the UK. We are taking the fight to them on all fronts under the leadership of our new Border Security Commander.
“As well as dismantling the gangs’ business modelswe are also stamping out other routes into the UK to bring them to justice and slash their profits.”