The moment a member of an organised crime gang was arrested over an attempt to smuggle 69 Albanians into Great Yarmouth has been revealed by police.
Crime-Gang-prosecuted-over-human-trafficking (2)
The National Crime Agency arrested Arturus Jusas at his home in Wandsworth in London after the trawler the Svanic was stopped off Great Yarmouth on November 17 last year and found to have 69 Albanians onboard.
The Svanic was seized as part of an operation involving the National Crime Agency, Border Force, HM Coastguard, Immigration Enforcement and Essex Police.
A stunned Jusas, who is Lithuanian, can be seen opening his door in his underwear to officers as part of a major operation to snare the organised crime gang behind the smuggling operation.
Jusas, 35, was one of a gang of three men who had bought the Svanic and fitted it out for its maiden voyage as a people smuggling vessel.
The gang had hoped to smuggle in 50 people a week on the dilapidated ship but their plans ended after she was seized on her first voyage in her new guise.
The Svanic was due to drop off the 69 Albanian migrants - 67 men and two pregnant woman - in Great Yarmouth and they were to be collected up in cars to continue their journeys in the UK.
The vast majority were economic migrants and a few were said to be bonded to crime gangs and would have carried out low level criminal activities for them in the UK.
Jusas and his fellow gang members, Kfir Igiv and Sergejs Kuliss, were arrested in June over their smuggling operation.
Their plans started to unravel when the Svanic ran aground off Sweden, leading to Swedish Coastguard becoming suspicious and flagging up the boat, which went on to Ostend in Belgium to pick up the 69 Albanians.
Jusas had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration.
Igiv, 39, and of Finchley London, and Kuliss, 32, and of Newham, London, were found guilty of the same offence after a trial at Chelmsford Crown Court.
Two crewmen on the Svanic, Igor Kosyi of Odessa, Ukraine, and Alexsandrs Gulpe, of Olaine, Latvia, were also found guilty of conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration at the same trial at the crown court.
A third crewman, Volodymyr Mykhailov, of Odessa, Ukraine, was found not guilty over the same offence at the trial.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here