A ‘snakehead’ gang who smuggled Chinese immigrants

A ‘snakehead’ gang who smuggled Chinese immigrants into the UK in lorries similar to the one in which 58 people died were jailed for a total of 14 years today.

(WED)

The three men who traded in human misery were brought to justice just days after a Dutch HGV driver was jailed over the 58 deaths at Dover.

The gangsters took thousands of pounds from their countrymen in return for bringing them into the UK.

Police were alerted to the gang when a teenage stowaway escaped from the snakeheads’ base in a south-east London housing estate.

Wang Ming Hui, 19, was found walking barefoot on the streets by officers after he escaped through a bathroom window on July 29 last year.

He told PCs he had travelled across the channel with 30 other stowaways from Fujian province, south east China who escaped before they could be met by the gangsters.

Although Hui had paid 14,000 for his ‘fare’ to the UK he was beaten up for escaping after he was spotted in London’s Chinatown.

He was then held in a cramped flat in Tanhurst Walk, Abbey Wood, southeast London for around two days.

Quing Wang, 29, Jian Guo, 25, and Zhong Lin 25 ‘were part of the English end of an international organised criminal gang,’ Blackfriars Crown Court heard.

Simon Denison, prosecuting, said: ‘The gang transported large numbers of Chinese people mostly from Fujian province.

‘They are taken out of China across the world then illegally enter the country.

The gang is known by the term “snakeheads”.

‘The travellers expected to earn great sums of money here which is perceived as the promised land.

‘The travellers agreed to pay the snakeheads by borrowing in the belief that they would earn more than enough to pay off the debt.

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‘Having been taken off the streets Wang Ming Hui was kept against his will by these defendants.

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with Guo beating him up in the presence of others for having escaped,’ Mr Denison said.

In the search of the flat in August, police found two books which contained business records detailing their vast profits.

One stowaway found in the flat, Liu Yong Tong, a 36-year-old craftsman told police he had been held with no space to lie down along with 23 other
stowaways.

Mr Tong said he was held captive in the room until his relatives in Fujian had paid pnd stlg 15,000 to the human traffickers.

But after the jury heard that Mr Tong did the shopping for the Snakeheads and had agreed to pay the fee for his journey, the four men were acquitted
of charges of false imprisonment of Mr Tong and blackmailing his family between 30 May and 3 August.

Sentencing, Judge Christopher Hordern QC made it clear to the three men they were NOT being jailed for human trafficking.

‘You are not being sentenced for being Snakeheads, if that is what you are.

‘You are not sentenced for entering this country illegally.

You are not sentenced for helping others to do so.

‘You are sentenced for the offences for which you have been found guilty of against English law.

‘They are serious offences for which only a custodial sentence will do.

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Turning to Wang, the judge said: ‘I’m clear you were the person in charge of (6) Tanhurst Walk.

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He added that he was ‘prime mover’ in the false imprisonment of Mr Hui.

‘The least sentence I think is proper is four years imprisonment.

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Sentencing Jian Guo and Zhong Lin the judge said:

‘You were convicted of both kidnapping and false imprisonment.

‘In my view, it is right to make some distinction between you and your co-accused.

‘In my view the least sentence appropriate in each of your cases is one of five years.

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The judge ordered that cash totalling pnds stlg 2,064, found at the flat and belonging to the defendants, be paid towards costs.

Quing Wang, 29, Jian Guo, 25, Zhong Lin, 25 were all found guilty of false imprisonment of Mr Hui in July last year after a three week trial.

Guo and Lin were also convicted of kidnapping Mr Hui at the same time.

A fourth alleged member of the gang, Hao Chen, 22, was cleared of false imprisonment, and kidnapping charges.

All four men were acquitted of blackmailing Mr Hui’s family.

ends