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Irishman Desmond Rice appeared at Nottingham Magistrates’ Court today. Alamy Stock Photo
channel crossings
Irishman among four charged with smuggling migrants to the UK from Belgium
The migrants were smuggled across the channel via boats.
AN IRISH MAN is one of four men who have appeared in court charged with smuggling migrants to the UK from Belgium in boats.
Desmond Rice, 46, appeared alongside Albanians Arsen Feci, Klodian Shenaj and Banet Tershana, aged 44, 48 and 51 respectively, at Nottingham Magistrates’ Court today, the UK National Crime Agency (NCA) said.
The men were arrested yesterday as part of an NCA investigation into a group suspected of organising a series of people-smuggling runs to the UK from Europe, including a number of crossing events last year.
The move follows the arrest of two men in Belgium last October for similar offences.
Feci and Shenaj, of Broxtowe Street, Nottingham, Tershana, of Harmsworth Crescent, Hove, East Sussex, and Rice, of Meadowcroft, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, were remanded in custody, charged with conspiracy to facilitate the illegal entry to the UK of migrants.
They will appear before Nottingham Crown Court on 29 March.
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