'Heartless' gangs who forced migrants to work in network of cannabis farms jailed

Eight people, including two from Birmingham, have been handed jail terms totalling 80 years following an investigation into people smuggling and cannabis production. 

Vietnamese nationals Mai Van Nguyen and Doung Dinh, both from Birmingham, ran a series of cannabis factories across the Midlands, London and the North of England, with both acting as ring leaders for the operations. 

Working with Nghia Dinh Tran, from London, would work with the ringleaders to procure illegal migrants to work for them in the cannabis factories. 

The crimes came to light during a joint operation between the National Crime Agency (NCA) and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), who both smashed the gang's operations, and that of a second gang. 

A trial at Birmingham Crown Court, which took place in January and February, heard how taxi drivers Shamraiz Akhtar and Tasawar Hussain, both 50 and from Birmingham, would move migrants, equipment and cannabis around various properties and locations for the gang, being paid hundreds of pounds each time. 

A sixth member of the gang, Amjad Nawaz, 44, acted as a middleman for the group, and had regular conversations with Nguyen about illegal workers, buying and selling cannabis and arranging properties to be used. 

The trial also heard a poignant statement from one of the trafficked victims, known only as 'Witness Z', who was exploited by the gang after arriving in the UK by boat after travelling from Vietnam in November 2020. 

Witness Z described working at a number of cannabis grow operations, saying that he 'had no choice' as he was in debt bondage. 

Witness Z was arrested in June 2021 when officers from Cleveland Police raided a farm at a house in Hartlepool.

Inside the property, officers discovered a note on the door saying 'take what you want' and 'please do not hit me, I do not know English'.

They also discovered a handwritten diary note from a migrant asking, 'Why did I get beaten up and forced to work?'.

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; however, on February 24, following a seven-week trial at Birmingham Crown Court, all six men were found guilty of all charges.

In a separate hearing at the Birmingham Crown Court, two other members of a second organised crime group were also sentenced. 

Roman Le, 37, from Birmingham, led a gang that operated at least eight farms in residential and commercial properties, as well as a storage facility that housed both equipment and harvested cannabis.

He would source the properties by posing as a housing developer, buying or renting them. 

In some cases, scaffolding was erected to make it look like building work was taking place.

Lee worked with co-defendants Yihao Feng, 29, from Manchester, and David Qayumi, 36, from Birmingham, to source and operate the properties. 

Among them were a disused nightclub in Coventry, a former public house in Birmingham, and an old hotel in Lancashire. Overall, the farms were capable of making millions of pounds worth of cannabis. 

Many of the farms were manned by Vietnamese or Albanian migrants, some of whom were likely exploited due to their immigration status. 

Nguyen and Tran would both plead guilty to conspiring to produce cannabis, but the others denied the charge. All six denied charges of trafficking for exploitation, but on Monday 24 February, following a seven-week trial at Birmingham Crown Court, all six men were found guilty of all charges.

On July 4, Nguyen was jailed for 15 years, Dinh got 14 years, Tran was sentenced to 11-and-half years, Nawaz 12 years, while Hussain and Akhtar got 10 and 10-and-a-half years respectively

Feng was jailed for three years and two months, while Qayumi received three years and four months. Le is to be sentenced on July 30. 

NCA branch commander, Kevin Broadhead, said: "Today’s sentencing hearings are the culmination of two major NCA investigations into significant organised criminality impacting on people and communities across the Midlands and beyond.

“These gangs were involved in drug production on an industrial scale, often exploiting migrants who had been smuggled or trafficked into the UK for the sole purpose of being put to work, or who were working to pay off debts.

“The men sentenced today didn’t care that these migrants were brought to the UK in incredibly dangerous ways in lorries or in boats and were then made to live in degrading conditions, often under the threat of violence. They just saw them 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.

“The sentences handed out today should serves as a warning, the NCA is determined to target, disrupt and dismantle the criminal gangs involved, and we will use all the powers at our disposal to do so."