How a mystery Albanian fixer and a pair of criminal pilots chose a tiny airfield near Corby for their international people-smuggling plot

If you drove past Deenethorpe Airfield, you probably wouldn’t even notice it was there.

The tiny former WWII RAF airbase a few miles outside of Corby sits on private land owned by the Brudenells of Deene Park.

The idyllic landscape is so tranquil that it’s easy to hear the red kites calling to each other from miles away. It’s also the unlikely location of an international people-smuggling plot that was foiled by undercover operatives from the National Crime Agency – the British FBI – last spring.

Behind the plot were pilot and flower delivery driver Richard Styles, career criminal and former pilot Silvano Turchet, Uber driver Vijayakumar Sivakumar and Albanian fixer Kujtim Karanxha – known as Tim K.

On March 24 2022, a plane carrying four immigrants from Albania landed at midday, after a journey over the channel from Saint-Ghislain airport in Belgium.

Styles, from St Albans, was the pilot. He and his silver-haired career-criminal pal Turchet, 68, had rented the six-seater Piper Seneca for £1,500 from its unwitting owner Sandtoft airfield in Lincolnshire.

As Styles landed at Deenethorpe, Albanian Tim K – who is still at large – and Uber driver Sivakumar were waiting. Sivakumar had been told to ‘wait at the hay bales’, and after he’d bundled the four Albanians into his car, he’d been sent a text telling him to go to Phoenix Parkway.

Styles, who was arrested by an NCA surveillance team after he’d taxied the plane into a hangar, joked ‘I normally get arrested for drugs, so it’s a bit strange.’

Sivakumar and his passengers were arrested at Phoenix Parkway in a Mercedes taxi. Tim K melted away and has not been seen since.

Turchet was arrested at his home in Nottingham in July 2022 after NCA investigators identified him as the organiser. He initially denied knowledge of the plot, even though phone data put him near Deenethorpe airfield on 24 March and showed he’d called Styles nine times.

All three men were charged with facilitating a breach of immigration law.

‘You weren’t just cogs in a machine’

And Leicester Crown Court heard on Friday (April 28) that it was far from the first time these men had been involved in serious smuggling plots.

Styles and Turchet had met in prison in around 2006 while both serving serious time for concealing drugs in planes.

They’d stayed in touch and in 2017, were connected with a Dutch plot to illegally smuggle 15 Albanians by plane. But the aircraft was too heavy and struggled to leave the ground.

Turchet was cleared after a trial last year but Styles was unable to attend his own court hearings as he was already in custody in the UK for the Deenethorpe plot. He was convicted in his absence but is set to appeal that conviction.

On Friday, His Honour Judge Timothy Spencer QC sentenced the men for their parts in the plot. Styles, who pleaded guilty last year, was sentenced to seven years in prison. Turchet, who admitted his crime on the first day of trial, was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years. Sivakumar had denied his charge and was sentenced to four-and-a-half years

In mitigation, counsel asked him to consider that these men had not been organisers of the plot but had been lower down the rankings.

However, Judge Spencer said: “To regard you as mere facilitators is inaccurate. You are the organisers. Without input from you, none of this would have been possible.

"You weren’t just cogs in a machine. You were the machine.”

So why Deenethorpe?

“Criminals are not that inventive and they learn from experience,” the NCA’s Paul Orchard told our reporters outside court.

"They speak to each other. It may be as simple as that.”

Because this is not Deenethorpe’s first rodeo, and it’s unlikely to be its last.

Back in 2012, a gang of drug dealers from Corby were jailed for 38 years after flying a light aircraft from the Netherlands to Deenethorpe airfield. Investigators found 5kg of cocaine stuffed in a wing.

Then in February 2022, a gang flew 50 kilos of cocaine into the UK from Sweden, landing at Deenethorpe where the drugs were allegedly driven away from the airport by Richard Farmer, who has denied the charges against him and will stand trial next year.

The rest of the gang flew on to Ireland and were extradited to Sweden on a European arrest warrant.

Mr Orchard says that the people running Deenethorpe are not criminals – they’re legitimate aircraft enthusiasts who are targeted by the underworld because of the airport’s rural location.

During the trial the court heard that the airport operators had been concerned about the manner of Styles’s flying. The hangar space had been booked and paid for by Silvano Turchet, who had aroused no suspicions.

His Honour Judge Timothy Spencer QC said in court that the airport was a very remote location and was little-used, but had the advantage of having a very long runway of 1.2miles, fit for the type of plane the men wanted to use.

He said: “That’s no doubt why it was chosen.”

Tim K – the fixer

Kujtim Karanxha or ‘Tim K’ is the mysterious Albanian man who provided the link between the pilots and the Albanians who needed a ride. He was at Deenthorpe Airfeld on the day the plot was undertaken and was spotted there by National Crime Agency operatives who had eyes on the smugglers.

But while they worked to arrest Styles as he taxied the plane into the hangar, and to follow the four immigrants as they were taken in a taxi to Phoenix Parkway, Tim K melted away into the Northamptonshire countryside. He managed to get himself to Birmingham railway station before he was tracked to Euston.

There, the trail went cold. Tim K has not emerged since. NCA officials told this newspaper that he is still a person of interest and that they are following active leads to try to track him down.

Judge Spencer said in court: “He’d shrewdly evaporated from the airfield and was last tracked around Euston later that day. Then he disappears off anyone’s radar and escaped justice.”

Silvano Turchet – the man on the ground

"I turn to you with a metaphoric sigh,” said Judge Spencer as he sentenced the 68-year-old man who has spent his entire life in and out of jail.

"You’re too old to be facing prison and to be appearing at a crown court trial.”

He was once on a list of Britain’s 20 most wanted men and was told by the judge that unless he changes his ways, he’s likely to die in prison.

Turchet, who lives in West Bridgford, Nottingham, wore a prison-issue grey jumper for his court hearing. Half way through the sentencing he indicated he’d been unable to hear what was going on and requested a hearing loop. With glasses and grey hair, he was told by the judge that he was too old for a serious crime prevention order to be made against him.

He has a daughter and grandson who he is close to, and a letter from them described him as a ‘strong family man’.

A lengthy list of previous convictions was rattled-off, including handling stolen goods in 2002. In 2007 he lost his pilot’s licence and was given consecutive 15 and six year sentences for piloting a plane from the same Saint-Ghislain airfield, bringing £9m of class-A drugs into the UK, as well as money laundering charges.

He’s still on licence for those offences until 2027 and was recalled to prison on his arrest for the latest charges.

Judge Spencer made a five-year serious crime prevention order in respect of Turchet.

Richard Styles – the man in the air

Styles, 54, of St Albans confessed to his part in the plan at an early court hearing, a move that was described as courageous by the judge. “I hope you’ve learned your lesson this time,” added Judge Spencer.

The court heard how he has been in a relationship and had taken on a step-father role to three children. At the time of the plot he had begun working as a flower delivery driver and was more settled.

But he also had a long and sometimes bungling criminal history, with nine convictions for 21 offences beginning in 1994. In 1997 he was convicted in Boulogne of attempting to smuggle drugs using a light aircraft. and then in 2003 he was convicted of using a plane to smuggle ecstasy tablets out of Belgium, and drop cannabis into Jersey the same year while he was on the run from the Belgian authorities. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison in 2006, where he is believed to have met Turchet.

In the same year he was given 12 years in jail by a Jersey court for trying to import cannabis resin.

He’s currently appealing his latest 18-month sentence for trying to pilot a plane concealing 15 Albanians from a Rotterdam airfield for which he was found guilty last year.

He’d lost his Civil Aviation Authority pilot’s licence but managed to get himself a US licence which allowed him to continue flying.

"I don’t have a lot of hope for Styles,” said NCA operations Manager Paul Orchard.

"Turchet may be too old to continue, but Styles isn’t. “I really, really hope he’s learned his lesson.”

Vijayakumar Sivakumar – the getaway driver

At trial London Uber driver Sivakumar, 43, from Tooting, had denied having knowledge of the plot and had claimed to be just a driver. Judge Spencer said that this was a misguided attempt by him to keep hold of his private hire licence.

"You’re not a mere driver,” he told him. “The evidence was compelling against you.

"The case against you was unanswerable. You should have pleaded guilty when Turchet did, but oh no, you put us all through a trial and obstinately refused to reflect on the evidence against you.”

The court heard he had a previous conviction for trying to smuggle a Sri Lankan family friend in the boot of his car across the channel for which he received six months in prison.

Sivakumar came to the UK as a 15-year-old with his mum and brother but she was killed in a road accident when he was still a teen. He tried, but failed, to train as an accountant.

"This changed the course of his life,” said his barrister Lesley Manley.

He turned his hand to manual work and driving and met and married his wife before they had two children who are now adults. He is a volunteer at the temple he attends and is believed to have met Tim K while working as a driver in London.

What happened to the immigrants on the plane?

The four who tried to enter the UK – Eugen Hadroj, Gezim Cejku, Baftjar Lamaj and Vildona Gjergji – had likely paid a high price to do so. Their final destination was thought to be into the criminal underworld that so many Albanians looking for a better life are sucked into. But they were picked up before they’d even been her an hour, at Phoenix Parkway retail park where they’d been taken by driver Sivakumar. All four have now applied to the Home Office to stay in the UK.

The NCA investigators

Judge Spencer gave everyone involved in the investigation the rare honour of a judicial commendation for their ‘swift and thorough’ investigation. He said: “All those involved in this case are a credit to themselves and a credit to the agency.”