They built the "Amazon-style" trafficking network in Britain, who are the two Albanians who mobilized 100 police to arrest them

" The Sun " has published a photo of Albanian traffickers who, according to the British media, are desperately trying to save their smuggling empire, a few days before they were caught by the police.

" The photo shows Myrteza Hilaj and Kreshnik Kadena in an emergency meeting after their plans to help bring four illegal immigrants to Britain in a Cessna fell apart.

The pair were part of a Europe-wide gang that charged mainly Albanian migrants up to £10,000 to come to the UK not just on the back of lorries but in private light jets. ", the article says.

The Albanian "gangsters" were arrested after an eight-year police operation code-named Micropus which also brought down four forgers who produced thousands of identity documents for migrants, including certificates allowing them to find work on construction sites. The operation involved around 100 police, immigration and border officers from all over Europe.

Hilaj, 50, was the "head" of smuggling gangs using trucks, while Kadena, 37, was the point of contact for pilots transporting Albanians into the country.

Operation Micropus began when the NCA began investigating Hilaj and discovered he was part of a large criminal ring that not only smuggled illegal immigrants but provided false documents for as little as £130.

When officers discovered that his associate Kadena helped arrange a flight in a Cessna for four illegals near Calais in July 2017 - including a child under 10 - they notified French authorities.

Britons David Green, 53, an architect and private pilot from Essex, and Edward Buckley, 45, a carpenter, were arrested and jailed for 30 months following a court case in Boulogne, France two weeks later.

The court heard how the two men had flown migrants from airfields near Calais and Le Touquet five times in the previous three months - paying each passenger £10,000.

When the plane failed to appear at Stapleford airfield near Romford, a panicked Kadena met Hilaj in a pub near their home in Leyton, east London.

They had no idea that their clandestine meeting was being recorded.

Nine days later the pair were arrested at their homes. They were convicted of facilitating illegal immigration at Southwark Crown Court in March and will be sentenced next month.

Mykhaylov, now 43, who ran a printing business in Hackney, London, took orders by email and text message and paid just £130 for a fake driving licence.

When officers raided the Ukrainian's home in Stratford, North East London, they found more than 3,000 identity documents, 3,500 passport-style photos and 300 construction work certificates.

They also found £15,000 in cash and enough materials to create 40,000 fake ID cards.

Mark McCormack, of the NCA, said the vast majority of customers were from Albania and described Mykhaylov's nefarious activities as "like the Amazon of fake identity documents".

Mykhaylov was jailed for five-and-a-half years after admitting a string of fraud charges in 2018, while brokers Genadijs Kalinns, 43, of Loughton, Essex, and Dymtro Mykhailytskyi, 45, of Romford were jailed for six years and five-and-a-half. respectively half a year.

Another Eastern European, Arsen Baculi, 24, from East Ham, was given five years and eight months for supplying false documents and drug possession and was later deported back to Albania. The fifth man involved in the factory, Oleksandr Sukhoviy, 45, was jailed for six years. Whenever the cops busted one of the counterfeiting gangs Hilaj was using, he just moved on to another one.