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"15 thousand pounds for a place", The Sun: Albanian gangs smuggle immigrants to Britain on luxury superyachts

Politiko 2026-07-07 09:12:52

"15 thousand pounds for a place", The Sun: Albanian gangs smuggle

The British newspaper The Sun claims that Albanian-British migrant smuggling gangs have begun using luxury yachts to transport people illegally to the United Kingdom, avoiding the stricter controls implemented at major ports.

"15 thousand pounds for a place", The Sun: Albanian gangs smuggle

According to the investigation published by the British tabloid, the traffickers advertise trips through the social network TikTok, while communication with clients continues on WhatsApp. The Sun journalists say they posed as an Albanian citizen previously deported from Britain, claiming to have served a sentence in Wandsworth Prison.

According to the article, after being convinced of their identity, the traffickers offered them a place on a yacht that would depart from the Netherlands to the coast near Dover, in exchange for a payment of 15,500 pounds, which, according to them, had to be delivered to Albania.

One of the people the journalists spoke to claimed that he had served a sentence in Britain for drug trafficking and that other people previously deported from the United Kingdom would also be on the trip. According to him, the yacht had a capacity for about ten passengers and was run by Albanian citizens.

The Sun also writes that traffickers claim to have successfully transported immigrants to Britain in recent days, while upon arrival, they are picked up by other people and taken to London.

The article comes after data cited by the tabloid showed that over 4,600 people deported from Britain have returned to the country in the past five years. More than a third of the cases, according to these figures, belong to Albanian citizens.

"15 thousand pounds for a place", The Sun: Albanian gangs smuggle

After the investigation was published, The Sun reported that it had reported the TikTok account, which was shut down for breaching rules relating to human trafficking. The newspaper added that its findings will also be handed over to the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA).

The article also mentions recent cases cracked down on by British authorities, where yachts used for migrant trafficking have been stopped off the coast of England and the organizers have been arrested or sentenced to prison.

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