Traffickers who ran migrant cannabis farms jailed

Members of an organised crime gang which forced trafficked migrants to work in cannabis farms across the country have been jailed.

The ringleader of the gang, Mai Van Nguyen, 35, from Birmingham, led a criminal network of Vietnamese nationals to exploit the migrants after they were trafficked into the country on lorries or boats, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said.

Taxi drivers were then used to move the migrants to farms and properties around the country.

Many were forced to live in degrading conditions in order to pay off their debt and some were subjected to violence, Kevin Broadhead, from the NCA, said.

Nguyen worked with fellow Vietnamese nationals Doung Dinh, 38, from Birmingham, and Nghia Dinh Tran, 30, from Lewisham, London, to exploit migrants by putting them to work.

According to the NCA, a trial at Birmingham Crown Court heard how taxi drivers Shamraiz Akhtar and Tasawar Hussain, 53 and 54 respectively and from Birmingham, would move migrants between various properties for the gang and were paid hundreds of pounds each time.

They would also carry equipment and cannabis, said the NCA.

A sixth member of the gang, Amjad Nawaz, 44, from Birmingham, arranged the properties which were used for buying and selling drugs.

The trial heard from one trafficking victim who said he was forced to work after being exploited by the gang.

In June 2021, he was arrested after officers from Cleveland Police raided a farm at a house in Hartlepool.

Inside the property, officers found a note pinned to a bedroom door saying "take what you want, please don't hit me, I do not know English" and a handwritten diary extract from a migrant in which they asked: "Why did I get beaten up and forced to work?"

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.

Nguyen and Tran both pleaded guilty to conspiring to produce cannabis but the others denied the charge.

All six denied charges of trafficking for exploitation but on 24 February, following a seven-week trial at Birmingham Crown Court, all six were found guilty of all charges.

The sentences handed down to the six men were:

• Mai Van Nguyen, 35, of Beetham Tower, Birmingham – 15 years

• Doung Dinh, 38, of St John's Walk, Birmingham – 14 years

• Nghia Dinh Tran, 30, of Casella Road, Lewisham, London – 11 years 6 months

• Amjad Nawaz, 44, of Blake Lane, Birmingham - 12 years

• Tasawar Hussain, 54, of Millward Street, Birmingham - 10 years

• Shamraiz Akhtar, 53, of Nechells Park Road, Birmingham - 10 years 6 months

The NCA said, in a separate hearing at the same court, two members of another organised crime group were also sentenced on Friday.

The agency said Roman Le, 37, from Birmingham, headed a gang who operated at least eight farms in residential and commercial properties as well as a storage facility which housed both equipment and harvested cannabis.

The NCA said he found properties by posing as a developer and then buying or renting them.

They said Le worked with co-defendants Yihao Feng, 29, from Manchester, and David Qayumi, 36, from Birmingham, to find and run the properties.

They included a disused nightclub in Coventry, a former pub in Birmingham and an old hotel in Lancashire.

Overall the farms were capable of making millions of pounds worth of cannabis, the agency said.

Feng was sentenced to three years and two months in prison, Qayumi got three years and four months and Le will be sentenced on 30 July, the NCA said.

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