Three people of Albanian origin have ended up in handcuffs after being caught red-handed smuggling illegal immigrants to Great Britain. The joint operation between the National Crime Agency (NCA) and the Belgian Federal Police managed to arrest these people during transport. 

Preliminary sources believe the perpetrators were part of an organized crime group that ran an illegal people-smuggling ring. 

Belgian officers arrested two men, aged 34 and 44 who lived in Basingstoke, on suspicion of people smuggling offenses when they arrived on the coast near Nieuwpoort at 4.30am on Sunday (October 30). 12 immigrants, believed to be Albanian citizens, were also detained. 

A third man, aged 46, was arrested by the NCA in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, on the same day on suspicion of assisting illegal immigration. He remains in custody and is being interrogated. 

The group is suspected of being part of a gang that organizes a series of people smuggling into the UK from Europe. 

NCA branch commander Colin Williams said: "We believe this operation has disrupted a suspected organized crime group involved in bringing people into the UK illegally."