Group facing prison after almost £500,000 of tobacco and cash seized in Birmingham and £4 million fraud uncovered by police
Four people have been convicted after a police investigation saw close to £500,000 worth of tobacco and cash seized, alongside various weapons.
Officers from Operation Fearless, which was set up to drive down crime in communities across the West Midlands, had launched an investigation after stopping a car in the Southside area of city back in May.
The officers searched the car and found several weapons including a baseball bat, wooden club, metal bar and knuckle duster.
Further enquiries were carried out, and as a result officers carried out a search of an address in Perry Barr.
More than 400kg of hand rolled tobacco, worth an estimated £177,000, as well as more than 4,500 illicit cigarettes, and £33,000 in cash was discovered.
The team found the address was effectively being operated as an illegal tobacco factory, with loose tobacco being packaged into pouches, and four people at the address, Mei Yun Wang, Honpeng Yang, Zheming Han, and Xing Cai Lin, were arrested.
Further investigative work led officers to two storage units in Aston and Walsall, which were also searched, and more tobacco worth approximately £275,000 was recovered, with the Walsall container found to be registered to Wang.
In total, tobacco worth more than £450,000 was seized during the investigation alongside £32,900 in cash.
Mei Yun Wang, 45, Honpeng Yang, 46, Zheming Han, 23, and Xing Cai Lin, 50, all of Nash Square, were subsequently charged with conspiracy to defraud, conspiracy to cheat the public revenue, and money laundering.
The four denied the charges, but following a trial at Birmingham Crown Court they were found guilty.
They were also found guilty of conspiring to defrauding Japan tobacco group, while Wang and Lin were also found guilty of conspiring to cheat the public revenue.
Detective Inspector Tom Lyons, from Operation Fearless, said: “The value of cash and illegal goods seized shows the financial gain made by criminals at the expense of law-abiding citizens, which is something we'll keep cracking down on.”
Detective Constable Amy Sheldon-Wilson, from Operation Fearless, said: ‘This outcome should reassure the public that we are taking firm and proactive action against organised crime.
"Our investigation uncovered two defendants who defrauded the public revenue of an estimated four million pounds and spent decades evading law enforcement while remaining unlawfully in the UK.
“Fearless will continue to work alongside our partners in Birmingham and across the West Midlands as we aim to make communities safer as we will act on information we receive, and we will keep taking action”.
David Broadbent, Operational Lead at HMRC’s Fraud Investigation Service, said: “The tobacco produced at illegal factories like this undermine legitimate retailers, funds wider organised crime, and harms public health.
“The weapons and cash seized by our West Midlands Police partners shows the link between tobacco fraud and other serious and organised criminality that harms our communities.
“Tax fraud steals money that funds the public services we all rely on and I’d urge anyone with information about any type of tax fraud to report it to HMRC on GOV.UK.”
Operation Fearless officers are a high-profile presence in the city centre, offering reassurance to people who live, work and visit the area, while making life as difficult as possible for criminals and tackling everything from drug crime and money laundering to anti-social behaviour.
