Facing jail, the trafficking gang who ran £5,500-a-head ‘migrant ferry’ to the UK
A FAMILY of travellers who charged Albanian migrants £5,500 each for a ‘ferry service’ across the Channel in inflatable boats and even planned to use a jet-ski were facing jail yesterday.
Leonard Powell, 66, and his son Alfie, 39, used four rigid-hulled inflatable boats to run a ‘very lucrative’ people-smuggling operation taking men, women and children from Calais to Kent.
The notorious family of criminals have previously been involved in a major cocaine conspiracy.
At least 18 people, mainly Albanians, were transported in overcrowded inflatable boats meant for six. Authorities fear the gang may have transported many more.
The National Crime Agency began an undercover operation in May 2016 after finding an empty boat bought by Leonard Powell lying in Dymchurch, Kent, along with 17 discarded lifejackets. The gang went on to attempt smuggling runs but ran out of fuel or got lost. On one crossing the boat ran out of fuel and desperate migrants were rescued by the RNLI.
The gang then turned to the idea of using a three-person jet-ski and police swooped as they met in a pub car park to buy one.
When the 40-stone kingpin of the gang, Leonard Powell, was arrested in August 2016, police discovered his sons, Alfie, Roger, 34, and George, 40, were also running a drug dealing business as well as a car ringing scam at the family’s traveller site in Farningham, Kent.
Yesterday Leonard and Alfie Powell were found guilty of conspiring to breach immigration law along with Wayne Bath, 39, Sabah Dulaj, 24, Albert Letchford, 42 and Artur Nutaj, 39. Judge Mark Dennis, QC, adjourned sentencing.
Alfie and Roger Powell were jailed at an earlier hearing for three years and eight months for stealing cars, while George Powell received three years and six months for drugs offences.