He smuggled in illegals to work on his skunk farms

A Vietnamese crime boss forced dozens of illegal immigrants to work as slaves in cannabis farms across the country, a court heard.

Mai Van Nguyen, 35, headed a network smuggling his fellow nationals into the UK in the backs of lorries.

Along with Hai Xuan Le, 34, he arranged at least six crossings in August and September 2020.

Van Nguyen, of Birmingham, ran cannabis farms across the Midlands, London and north of England.

The properties would be leased in other people’s identities using false identity documents or aliases.

He worked with fellow Vietnamese nationals Doung Dinh, 38, from Birmingham, and Nghia Dinh Tran, 24, from Lewisham, southwast London, to exploit migrants at the farms.

Shamraiz Akhtar and Tasawar Hussain, both 50, worked as taxi drivers ferrying migrants from one cannabis factory to another.

Amjad Nawaz, 43, from Birmingham, acted as a middleman, for Nguyen, arranging buying and selling of cannabis, and setting up the farms.

A Vietnamese migrant, known only as ‘Witness Z’, told how he was exploited by the gang after arriving in the UK by boat in November 2020.

He initially travelled to the UK to pay off money he had borrowed to fund medical treatment for his wife, and was given a phone number to call by his traffickers when he arrived.

Witness Z was driven from London to Birmingham, then put to work in a cannabis grow in nearby Tipton, West Midlands.

He said he had no choice but to work as he was in debt bondage to the people who had transported him to the UK.

Later he was taken to the site of another cannabis grow in Tyseley, Birmingham, where he was forced to help clear up the property.

Witness Z was then transported to another cannabis farm at a house in Hartlepool, Teesside.

The property was raided by Cleveland Police in June 2021 and Witness Z was arrested.

Inside officers found a note pinned to a bedroom door saying “take what you want, please don’t hit me, I do not know English”, along with hand-written diary extract from a migrant asking: “why did I get beaten up and forced to work?”

Nawaz was arrested by the NCA at his partner’s house in Hall Green on 7 June 2021. Bags of cannabis were found in an upstairs bedroom and outhouse. A series of messages with Nguyen were found on his phone, along with images of cannabis and bundles of cash.

Two days later Tran was arrested at a cannabis grow in Chaddesden, Derby, where dozens of plants and two migrants were also found. Officers also linked Tran to another address in Chad Road, Birmingham, where a further cannabis farm was found.

Hussain was arrested in August 2021 while he was parked outside a property which was found to contain another cannabis grow in East Ham, London. Four Vietnamese migrants were found inside.

Akhtar was initially detained by West Midlands Police officers, who were working with the NCA, in March 2021. He was returning from a cannabis grow in Cheshire at the time, and 10 kilos of the drug was found in his car. He was arrested again by the NCA at his home in Nechells Park Road, Birmingham in November 2021.

Dinh was arrested at his partner’s address in Essex Street, Birmingham in August 2022.

Van Nguyen was later arrested for smuggling migrants into the UK in the back of HGVs. He was then re-arrested for the cannabis production and trafficking offences in September 2022.

Nguyen was convicted of conspiring to facilitate illegal immigration and jailed for five-and-a-half years in November 2023.

He and Tran have both since admitted conspiring to produce cannabis, while the others denied the charge.

All six denied charges of trafficking for exploitation but were convicted after a seven-week trial at Birmingham Crown Court.

They were remanded in custody ahead of sentence on 4 July.

NCA Branch Commander Kevin Broadhead said: ‘These men were responsible for the exploitation of a number of migrants who they moved around the UK and forced to work in cannabis farms.

‘Not only were the migrants transported to the UK in incredibly dangerous ways in lorries or in boats, but they were then made to live in degrading conditions in order to pay off their debt bondage. We know some were also subjected to violence.

‘But this gang didn’t care about that, they only saw the migrants as a way to make money.

‘Tackling organised immigration crime is a priority for the NCA, and it is cases like this that demonstrate exactly why.’

Throughout the course of the NCA investigation cannabis farms linked to the network were found in Tipton, Coventry and Edgbaston in the West Midlands, Derby, Hartlepool, East Ham in London and Gatley in Cheshire. Harvested cannabis was recovered from a further property in Hall Green, Birmingham.

The NCA investigation was supported by West Midlands, Cleveland, Derbyshire and Metropolitan Police forces, as well as the Crown Prosecution Service and Home Office Immigration Enforcement.