THIS is the moment Albanian gangsters desperately scramble to save their smuggling empire in a pub, days before cops smashed down their door.
The snap shows Myrteza Hilaj and Kreshnik Kadena in an emergency meeting after their plans to help bring four illegal migrants to Britain on a Cessna were scuppered.
They met within hours of the plane - piloted by British architect David Green - being grounded by French cops at a private airport near Calais.
The pair were part of a European-wide gang charging mainly Albanian migrants up to £10,000 to come into the UK not just on the backs of lorries, but on private light aircraft.
The Sun can today lay bare the details of a complex, eight-year police operation - codenamed Micropus - which also brought down four forgers producing thousands of identity documents for migrants, including certificates which allowed them to get jobs on building sites.
It resulted in 20 convictions in Britain, Belgium and France and blocked 50 migrants from getting into the UK - although it is not known how many had already made it in.
The operation involved around 100 police, immigration and border officers from across Europe.
Cops say family man Hilaj, 50, was a fixer for smuggling gangs using lorries, while Kadena, 37, was the point of contact for pilots carrying Albanians into the country.
Senior investigating officer Saju Sasikumar, of the National Crime Agency, said: “Hilaj was almost playing the role of a travel agent, putting the migrants in the right place and linking them with the right people in France and Belgium to facilitate their travel to the UK.”
The NCA suspects that Hilaj was also trying to recruit lorry drivers into the operation after leaving a random note on the windscreen of a vehicle at Thurrock services on the M25.
Officer Sasikumar told The Sun: “He and an associate put a note on a lorry windscreen with the message ‘call me’.
“Our assessment was that they were trying to recruit drivers willing to bring migrants over to the UK.”
Operation Micropus began when the NCA started investigating Hilaj and discovered he was part of a huge criminal network which not only smuggled in illegal immigrants, but provided fake documents for as little as £130.
When officers found out his associate Kadena helped organise a flight in a Cessna for four illegals near Calais in July 2017 - including a child under 10 - they alerted French authorities.
Brits David Green, 53, an architect and private pilot from Essex, and Edward Buckley, 45, a carpenter, were arrested and jailed for 30 months following a court case in Boulogne, France two weeks later.
The court heard how the two men had flown migrants from airfields near Calais and Le Touquet five times in the previous three months - each passenger paid £10,000.
534 illegal migrants crossed the Channel in 10 dinghies on Sunday in the highest daily total for the year so far.
It means 6,264 people have made the dangerous journey from France since January - a 28 per cent faster rate than 2023.
Rishi Sunak last night doubled down his pledge to get Rwanda flights going by the end of spring as MPs punted his flagship Bill back to the Lords.
If peers finally approve the plan today then King Charles could sign it into law by the end of the week.
When the plane failed to show up at Stapleford aerodrome near Romford, a panicked Kadena met Hilaj in a pub near their homes in Leyton, east London.
They had no idea their clandestine meet-up was being recorded.
Nine days later the pair were arrested at their homes. They were convicted of facilitating illegal immigration at Southwark Crown Court in March and will be sentenced next month.
Cops also busted a series of fraudsters being used by Hilaj - including one who ran an ‘Amazon-style’ service for at least seven years.
Master counterfeiter Sergiy Mykhaylov sold thousands of false ID cards and work permits to foreign nationals looking to get a foothold in the UK.
His services spread rapidly by word of mouth. The organisation would provide cards to anybody. It is a very lucrative market
Mykhaylov, now 43, who ran a printing business in Hackney, London, took custom orders by email and text message and charged just £130 for a false driving licence.
When officers raided the Ukranian’s home in Stratford, North-East London, they found more than 3,000 identity documents, 3,500 passport style photos and 300 building work certificates.
They also found £15,000 in cash and enough material to create 40,000 fake ID cards.
Mark McCormack, of the NCA, said the vast majority of customers were from Albania and described Mykhaylov’s nefarious activities as being “like the Amazon of false identity documents.”
He said: “His services spread rapidly by word of mouth. The organisation would provide cards to anybody. It is a very lucrative market.”
What is the Rwanda plan?
Under the plan, anyone who arrives in Britain illegally will be deported to Rwanda, a country in eastern Africa.
The government believes the threat of being removed to Rwanda will deter migrants from making the dangerous Channel crossing in small boats.
Once in Rwanda, their asylum claims will be processed but there is no route back to the UK, save for some exceptional circumstances such as individual safety concerns. Britain will pay for migrants to start a new life in Rwanda.
What’s the hold up?
First announced by Boris Johnson in 2022, the scheme has been bogged down by relentless legal challenges.
The first flight was due to take off in summer 2022, but was blocked on the runway at the last minute by a European Court order.
Since then the legality of the plan has been contested in the courts, culminating in a Supreme Court judgement in November last year which said Rwanda was unsafe for asylum seekers.
What is Sunak doing?
To salvage the Rwanda plan from the Supreme Court’s scathing ruling, Rishi Sunak announced a two-pronged workaround.
First, he would sign a new treaty with Rwanda to beef up protections for asylum seekers that will be enshrined in law.
Second, he would introduce new legislation that would declare Rwanda a safe country.
It would mean courts, police and officials would have to treat it as safe unless there is a risk of individual and irreparable harm.
How long will that take?
The legislation has cleared the Commons but is now being held up in the House of Lords.
Rishi Sunak does not have a majority in the Lords, and peers are far more hostile to the plan.
They will likely send it back to the Commons with amendments watering down the scheme.
Such changes would be unconscionable to MPs who would strip out the measures and send it back.
This “ping-pong” will continue until either side - usually the unelected Lords - gives in and the Bill passes.
When will flights take off?
Mr Sunak wants to get the first flights sent to Rwanda by the spring.
But potential hurdles include more court battles launched by individual migrants or the European Court of Human Rights.
Mr Sunak has vowed to ignore any more orders by Strasbourg judges to ground planes, although individual appeals in domestic courts could prove tricky.
Sir Keir Starmer has said he will scrap the scheme if he is elected PM, even if it is working
Mykhaylov was jailed for five and a half years after admitting a string of fraud charges in 2018 while middlemen Genadijs Kalinns, 43, of Loughton, Essex, and Dymtro Mykhailytskyi, 45, from Romford were jailed for six years and five-and-a-half years respectively.
Another Eastern European Arsen Baculi, 24, of East Ham, was given five years, eight months for intent to deliver fake documents and possessing drugs and was later deported back to Albania.
A fifth man involved in the factory, Oleksandr Sukhoviy, 45, was jailed for six years.
Each time cops took out one of the forgery gangs being used by Hilaj he simply moved on to another.
The NCA also took down a husband and wife making fake documents in their bedroom in Romford.
Florin Ardelean, 48, and his wife, Aurelia Vilescu, 38, were arrested with their distributor Albanian Igkli Chotza, 29, of Rainham, Essex.
Over 9,000 false documents, 15,000 photographs, £59,000 cash and equipment used to make fake IDs were found at the house.
Ardelean was jailed for 2018 while his wife was given two years. He was deported to Hungary the following year while his wife was sent back to Romania.
Chotza was given a two-year suspended sentence.
When fixers Halaj and Kadena face justice next month it will mark the end of an eight-year probe into the smuggling gang.
But NCA officers admit they are playing whack-a-mole when it comes to organised crime gangs
Senior investigating officer Saju Sasikumar said: “When we arrested Hilaj on the face of it he didn’t have a massive amount of money.
“Where it was going and who is profiting is still a working progress.
“There isn’t one single person controlling the whole operation. Organised crime groups are very separate fluid groups that work together when they need to and disassociate when they don’t.
“This is displayed through Hilaj working through one false identification group and, as soon as we took that one down, he went straight on to another unconnected one.
“This is what we see with a lot of organised crime”
