Luan Braha ran “The Boss” car wash in Staffordshire, where he coordinated the smuggling of Albanian nationals from Belgium into the UK.
The 38-year-old North Macedonian national plotted with colleagues on the continent to transport up to 200 migrants across the channel in the back of trucks.
He intended to charge desperate migrants more than £5,000 per person and even considered drugging people, including children, to keep them quiet on the journey from Ghent.
Investigators from the West Midlands Regional Organised Crime Unit (ROCU) identified Braha as the plot’s mastermind and apprehended him in July last year at a car wash on Mill Street in Newcastle-Under-Lyme.
In Belgium, the unit collaborated with the East Flanders Human Trafficking Team to carry out simultaneous warrants.
Braha claimed in an interview that he had no intention of ever carrying out his plans, that they were a figment of his imagination, but a jury at Stoke Crown Court later rejected that excuse.
On June 8, he was found guilty of conspiring to violate immigration law by preparing to traffic Albanian migrants into the UK.
He was sentenced to eight years in prison yesterday in the same court.
The jury dismissed his mitigation, and the judge agreed, stating we’d brought strong and compelling evidence against Braha,” said Detective Inspector Julie Woods of the West Midlands ROCU.
He used the car wash to meet people and gain support for his plan to traffic migrants.
We intercepted what he thought were secure chat groups, where we discovered discussions about migrants, payments, and travel plans.
It was clear that Braha was the main conspirator, openly planning to smuggle people into the UK for payment with no regard for their safety.”