Belgian trafficking ring busted
2003-08-12 15:48
Brussels - A Belgian court on Tuesday convicted 23 members of a human-trafficking ring, the biggest ever uncovered in the country, for trafficking up to 12 000 illegal immigrants into Britain.
Most of the clandestines smuggled into Britain were Albanians, as was the leader of the smuggling ring, Mhill Sokoli, who received an eight-year prison sentence at the court in Dendermonde in the east of the Flanders region.
Others convicted included truck drivers and people who provided drop houses in Brussels for the aliens, who each paid between €400 ($440) and €3 000 ($3 400) to the traffickers.
They received sentences of at least three years and were given leave to appeal.
After reaching Italy, the court heard, the immigrants, who also included many Iraqis, were sent to drop houses in Brussels before being taken across the English Channel by truck via the northern Belgian port of Ostende.
The gang was broken up last February.
"It was a very significant case of human trafficking," said a court spokesperson, Hilde Pauwels.
Pauwels said that over a two-year period, the Brussels-based gang succeeded in smuggling between 10 000 and 12 000 illegal immigrants - mostly Albanians but also Iraqis - from Belgium to Britain.
Of the 24 persons originally arrested, one was released for lack of evidence.