Four men have been charged as part of a National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation targeting people smugglers.
Two Albanian brothers, Arben Cakici, 48, and Astrit Cakici, 37, from Barking and Newham, who were living illegally in the UK, have been charged with facilitating illegal entry into the UK and possessing a firearm.
Arben also faces a charge for carrying a knife.
The NCA made a series of arrests on Friday 16th October after witnessing what is believed to have been a handover of four migrants from a lorry into two cars, near a service station in Kent at around 8 am.
Two Romanian lorry drivers arrested at the scene, Ionut Colibei, 34, and Valerica Prutearu, 41, are also charged with facilitating illegal entry into the UK.
Colibei was also charged for having a knife.
The four men will appear at a virtual court today (Monday 19th October).
Searches in Newham on Friday also led to a further arrest of a 45-year-old man from Albania, wanted for unrelated offences.
The four Albanian migrants [aged between 20 to 35] who were arrested on Friday are now being dealt with by Immigration Enforcement.
A 30-year-old male arrested in Hastings as part of a separate NCA operation, who is suspected of supplying small boats to aid people smugglers in France, has been released under investigation.
Before you go...
We need your help. As former emergency services & armed forces personnel, we pride ourselves on bringing you important, fast-moving and breaking news stories & video which are free from the negative bias which is often directed at the emergency services & NHS by some sections of the mainstream media.
One of the reasons we started 'Emergency Services News' was because we became tired of reading badly informed stories about the emergency services & NHS which seemed only ever to highlight negative aspects of the job.
We want to be the unheard voice of the remarkable men and women who serve in the emergency services, NHS and armed forces. And with around 500k page views each month, we are getting there!
As income from ads, the mainstay source of income for most publishers, continues to decline; we need the help of you, our readers.
You can support emergency services news from as little as £1. It only takes a minute. Every contribution, however big or small, is vital for our future.
Please help us to continue to highlight the life-saving work of the emergency services, NHS and armed forces by becoming a supporter.
Deport them forever and seize their assets to pay for their defence and the costs associated with incarceration and the travel home. Simple. Nice, cheap and quick.