An Albanian crime boss who smuggled hundreds of migrants into Britain has sneaked back to the UK after serving half of a ten-year jail sentence in Belgium.
Alket Dauti, 36, was the linchpin of a ruthless Albanian gang that smuggled migrants – including children – in refrigerated lorries from Belgium.
He was arrested at his council flat in Penge, South-East London, in 2018. Dauti was extradited to Belgium the next year, where he had already been sentenced for ten years in absentia for running the smuggling operation.
At his hearing it was revealed Dauti, who arrived in the UK in 2009, was living on a visa that expired in 2018. He should have been banned from re-entering due to his criminal offence.
An MoS investigation has revealed he only served five years of his ten-year-term in Belgium, and was deported back to his native country.
But sources in Albania said that he left last year for Europe.
MoS analysis of Dauti’s TikTok, Instagram and Facebook accounts showed that he has been living in the UK since at least last November.
Photos on Facebook showed him at the council estate in Penge where he lived with his wife and children before his arrest. Last week, Dauti posted a video on TikTok of himself driving on what appears to be a residential London street. Two days later, he took the clip down.
Home Office officials told the MoS that they have no record of Dauti entering the country. The MoS tried to speak Dauti at his home in Penge, but no one answered the door. Eventually, we spoke to him on a British mobile number after contacting him through Facebook Messenger.
Dauti said he has been living in the UK ‘legally’ since June last year. He added that he flew into Luton Airport directly from Albania.
Asked how he managed to come back, Dauti said: ‘I am with papers… What do you mean I am not allowed to come back? I haven’t done any crime in the UK.’ Told the Home Office has no record of him coming back to Britain, he warned us not to go around his house again.
Dauti was arrested with his cousins Kujdesi Dauti, 41, and Sabah Zaka, 40, in 2018. Kujdesi Dauti and Zakaboth received eight years in jail in Belgium in absentia, but are in the UK fighting extradition.
The gang charged migrants £13,000 for a seat in the front of a lorry and £8,000 in the back.
The Home Office declined to comment.