An Albanian people smuggler pleaded guilty to entering the UK illegally after a Mail on Sunday investigation led to his arrest.
The Home Office last night hailed this newspaper’s ‘brilliant investigative journalism’ that led to Alket Dauti – who smuggled hundreds of migrants to Britain in lorries – being hauled in front of a court.
Dauti, 38, was arrested a week after the MoS revealed how he sneaked into the UK months after being released from prison in Belgium and deported to Albania.
He posted videos on TikTok of himself driving around London, while relatives uploaded photos of him walking his two daughters to school, near the family council home in Penge, south-east London.
When we contacted the Home Office, officials had no record of Dauti entering the country.
But a week after we published our story last month, he was arrested.
At Woolwich Crown Court on Friday, he pleaded guilty to ‘entering the UK without leave’ and will be sentenced on May 12.
He could get four years in jail and is likely to then be deported.
He was the linchpin of an Albanian gang bringing migrants from Belgium to the UK, charging £8,000 per journey in the back of lorries, and £13,000 for a seat at the front.
Dauti was arrested at his flat in Penge in 2018 and deported to Belgium, where he’d been sentenced in absentia to ten years.
He was released and deported to Albania last year, but is believed to have arrived in Britain by November.
The Home Office said it is ‘determined’ to remove foreign criminals, adding: ‘We all have a role to play… whether it is the brilliant investigative journalism carried out by Mail on Sunday reporters, or the thousands who call our Immigration Enforcement Hotline.’