The Spanish police have arrested seven members of an Albanian gang who smuggled Albanian migrants from Spain to the UK on boats and yachts. Tells Reuters.
According to information provided by the Guardia Civil, a gang that has been carrying out such crimes since 2014 is at risk – however, it is not known how to calculate the number of people who have completed this journey.
However, migrants had to pay between 3,000 and 15,000 euros to make the journey between Spain and the United Kingdom, under extremely dangerous conditions.
According to Spanish authorities, “the methods of concealment used posed a risk to the life or physical safety of the migrants, some of whom were minors”.
According to what is known so far, the migrants will camp near the ports of Santander and Bilbao in northern Spain before boarding ferries and cargo ships bound for the British ports of Portsmouth, Southampton and Liverpool.
The arrests have now been made as part of a joint investigation with Britain’s National Crime Agency, the Guardia Civil said.
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