Albanian man caught trying to sneak migrants into UK in the back of a lorry | UK | News
A smuggler who admitted trying to smuggle five people into the UK by truck and intending to supply cocaine has been jailed for 10 years, law enforcement said. Ibrahim Sollaku, an Albanian national, of Priory Road, Southampton, pleaded guilty in December 2025 to conspiracy to assist illegal immigration into the United Kingdom and possession with intent to supply class A drugs.
The 33-year-old was arrested by officers from the South West Regional Organized Crime Unit (SWROCU) in Bournemouth on November 5 last year. On the same day, an operation carried out by Belgian law enforcement arrested a taxi driver and stopped five Albanian men in Bruges from getting into a lorry and heading to the UK.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said Sollaku arranged for the taxi to take the migrants to a Belgian port, where they were loaded onto a lorry for a journey across the Channel, before being collected by another taxi in the UK.
During the search of his address, more than 90 street cocaine sales, as well as handwritten notes regarding drug supply, were seized.
At Winchester Crown Court on Friday he was sentenced to seven years and six months in prison for the smuggling charge and another two years and six months for the intent to supply, which will run consecutively.
Detective Chief Inspector Adam Smith, of SWROCU, said: “Sollaku is clearly a well-connected criminal with his involvement in both organized immigration crime and the class A drug trade.
“He was not interested in the risk or harm caused by either crime; he was simply out to make money.
“Criminals like Sollaku seek to make huge profits by facilitating illegal journeys.
“The high price tags they charge often help strengthen criminal networks and cause further harm to our communities.”
Anja Hohmeyer, of the CPS, said: “Ibrahim Sollaku played a leading role in this criminal conspiracy to bring people to the UK illegally from Albania.
“This was a successful joint operation between the UK and Belgium to capture and dismantle international people smuggling gangs.
“Sollaku could have chosen to get a job and make a life for himself and his young family, but he threw all that aside.
“Those involved in immigration crime risk destroying not only their own lives, but also those of their family members.”
