Italian police arrested a man wanted by Britain in connection with a people-smuggling plot that led to the death of 39 Vietnamese migrants in the back of a truck in 2019.

Stefan Damian Dragos, a 28-year-old Romanian citizen, is accused of providing the truck that transported the migrants to England, police said Saturday in a statement.

Dragos was arrested north of Milan in the town of Cinisello Balsamo on a UK arrest warrant. The statement said Dragos, “belongs to a criminal organization dedicated to illegal immigration.”

Essex police in southeast England said he is charged with “conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration and encouraging or assisting the commission of an offense.”

The migrants — the youngest of whom were two 15-year-old boys — suffocated in the sealed metal container as they were being brought to Britain to begin new lives in October 2019. Their bodies, many naked or half-clothed, were found in a gruesome pile, and bloody handprints were found on the inside of the container’s doors. At least one of the victims had texted a series of messages to her family as she suffocated.

The case shocked Britain and Vietnam as it brought to light the lengths migrants will go to escape poverty in Southeast Asia, and the gangs exploiting their desperation.

The ringleaders of the smuggling gang, Ronan Hughes and Gheorghe Nica, were convicted of 39 counts of manslaughter at a London court in January, and jailed for 20 years and 27 years respectively.

Truck drivers Maurice Robinson and Eamonn Harrison were also given 13-year and 18-year sentences respectively.

With Post Wires