Aylesbury man jailed for smuggling migrants across English Channel
Desmond Rice, 47, has been jailed for four and a half years
A man from Aylesbury, has been sentenced after smuggling migrants across the English Channel via small boats. Desmond Rice, alongside Albanians Banet Tershana and Klodian Shenaj, have been handed jail sentences amounting to over 14 years collectively.
These individuals orchestrated two smuggling operations in October last year, as detailed by the National Crime Agency (NCA).
During the proceedings at Nottingham Crown Court, it was revealed that this group undertook the perilous task of ferrying migrants from Belgium and France to the UK using small boats. They undertook these journeys with insufficient and inadequate life jackets for the migrants they transported.
Albanian citizen Banet Tershana took on the role of organizer and financier, handling payments from migrants. Klodian Shenaj acted as a conduit between facilitators situated in mainland Europe and the UK. Desmond Rice, the British national, and Jetmir Myrtaj, another Albanian, played integral roles in facilitating the actual crossings.
Derek Evans, the branch commander of the NCA, emphasized the relentless efforts of investigators to identify and take action against the individuals responsible for this people-smuggling network. He further stressed the agency's commitment to tackling organized immigration crime both within the UK and beyond.
The smugglers initially came to attention when a coastguard aircraft spotted them unloading migrants at Joss Bay in Kent on two separate occasions: October 8 and October 23 of the previous year.
Jetmir Myrtaj, aged 45, from Kirby Road, Leicester, employed a false identity to prepare a rigid-hulled inflatable boat named Orca in Brightlingsea, Essex, making it seaworthy for the smuggling trips. Prior to the October 8 run, Desmond Rice, 47, from Meadowcroft, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, acquired another boat, named Aquaholic, for £22,500. He and Klodian Shenaj, 49, from Broxtowe Street, Nottingham, moored it in Brightlingsea as well.
After the October 23 operation, there was an attempted third crossing on October 29. During this event, Rice provided a kayak to two men to access the Aquaholic. Belgian authorities arrested the two men, aged 35 and 45, as they were trying to load 12 migrants onto the boat in Belgium. Only six unsuitable life jackets were available for use at sea.
Subsequently, the arrests of Rice, Myrtaj, Shenaj, and Tershana, 52, from Harmsworth Crescent, Hove, occurred between October 2022 and March 2023. Tershana admitted guilt on April 17 for conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration and was sentenced to five years in prison by Judge Stuart Rafferty KC.
During the trial that commenced on July 31 at Nottingham Crown Court, Jetmir Myrtaj pleaded guilty to assisting unlawful immigration to the UK. The following day, both Desmond Rice and Klodian Shenaj pleaded guilty to the same charges. Rice was then sentenced to four and a half years in prison, while Shenaj received a jail term of four years and nine months.
One of the co-defendants, Arsen Feci, 44, also from Broxtowe Street, Nottingham, did not appear for trial and is suspected to have fled the country. The NCA has requested any information regarding his whereabouts from the public.