Two jailed in £1.7m cigarette smuggling racket

Alan Nesbeth, aged 53, was jailed for five years while 28-year-old Jian Ning Yang was locked up for two-and-a-half years.

Some of the contraband was sent into the country through the post in packages and parcels from China and Korea disguised as tea, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard yesterday.

The rest was driven into the UK by the lorry load, explained Miss Heidi Kubik, prosecuting.

The racket was smashed by Revenue and Customs investigators who swooped to seize hundreds of thousands of illicit cigarettes and tons of rolling tobacco.

A huge haul, on which £1.6 million duty had been evaded, was recovered after the juggernaut in which it had been concealed among a load of steel wool arrived at the Alligator Self Storage unit in Portway Road, Wednesbury, in May 2013, continued Miss Kubik.

Fifteen months earlier another raid by Customs officials on the Leavesley Containers in Wellington Road, Dudley, had unearthed tobacco and cigarettes on which £131,000 duty had been dodged. That had been smuggled into the country as either freight or in postal packages of 'tea.'

Yang played an important role in the latter, acting as a link between the UK and Chinese arms of the operation because he spoke good English, the court heard. Undercover investigators had watched him transferring heavy boxes from the container to his car days before officials swooped.

His green BMW was then tailed to a house in Greenhill Road, Handsworth where more boxes and bin liners packed with tobacco were found. Delivery companies were also seen dropping off packages at the address from which 8,000 illicit cigarettes and tobacco - on which more than £47,000 duty should have been paid - was recovered. A £38,175 cash stash was later discovered at his home in Linwood Road, Dudley - £9,000 of which was found hidden inside a freezer. Large quantities of tobacco and Amber Leaf pouches along with paperwork showing payments to storage and courier firms were also uncovered at the property.

Surveillance teams saw packages of 'Chinese tea' being collected from Bilston post office by 53-year-old Nesbeth and Renna Graham, said Miss Kubik. The former was also spotted selling tobacco in the street outside the post office at 6.30 at night in the summer of 2012.

The prosecutor explained: "He spoke on a mobile and then met a man who he allowed to smell the contents of a tobacco pouch. He was heard to say 'I have been in the game for years.' Money was also seen to change hands."

Around 10,800 cigarettes were found in the boot of Yang's car when it was stopped by investigators while both Nesbeth and 63-year-old Graham were travelling as passengers in the vehicle.

Nesbeth from Glyn Avenue, Moxley, was also seen at the Alligator Self Storage in May of the following year where a surveillance film captured boxes being unloaded from the lorry to a container that had been rented by him less than a fortnight earlier under the guise of storing electrical goods.

Yang had been an important player in the smuggling through Leavesley Containers while Nesbeth was a 'facilitator' in the operation both there and at the Alligator Self Storage yard, the court was told. Graham of of Bradley Lane, Bilston had been paid £15-a-time to receive packages sent by the gang from China and Korea.

She and Nesbeth were both convicted of conspiracy to evade excise duty through the fraudulent importation of cigarettes and tobacco between July 2011 and January 2013 while Yang admitted the offence. Graham was given a 15 month prison sentence suspended under supervision for 18 months.

Judge Michael Dudley told them: "This was a highly sophisticated smuggling operation involving Chinese and Korean connections in the manufacture, importation, storage and distribution of cigarettes and tobacco on a large scale. None of these defendants were right at the top of the operation but Yang was at the highest level of the three, while Nesbeth was a mid level facilitator and storer who also did a little selling. Graham acted as a post box."

Colin Booker, assistant director Criminal Investigation for Revenue and Customs, said: "This gang thought nothing of ripping off honest taxpayers. They defrauded legitimate businesses and even their customers, who were sold a low-quality product. Our investigation has prevented a huge supply of unregulated tobacco from reaching the UK market. We will not cease in our efforts to tackle the cheats and fraudsters and their illegal activities."