Birmingham people smuggling gang jailed over migrant operation

Nguyen would move the Vietnamese nationals to safe houses operated by the groups, the court heard

A member of a people smuggling gang who moved migrants through a network of "safe houses" has been jailed.

Mai Van Nguyen, 34, was the third Birmingham gang member to be convicted.

Nguyen worked with Hai Xuan Le and Habib Behsodi to arrange at least six crossings for Vietnamese nationals to the UK to in 2020, Birmingham Crown Court heard.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) said many migrants are believed to have ended up working in cannabis factories.

Nguyen's role was to meet the migrants on their arrival in the UK, and collect payments from the "safe houses" in Birmingham and Wolverhampton, the court heard.

Hai Xuan Le was jailed for seven-and-a-half-years

After a trial that lasted three weeks Nguyen, who is Vietnamese himself, had denied conspiring to facilitate illegal immigration, but the jury convicted him of the charge.

"Mai Van Nguyen was part of a criminal network who treated people as nothing more than a commodity, happily risking their lives by putting them in the back of lorries for long journeys," the NCA's Mick Pope said.

Previously, the court heard how the group referred to the migrants as "pork" and "chicken" in phone messages.

"Stopping people smugglers is a priority for the NCA and we are determined to do all we can to disrupt and dismantle the criminal networks involved, wherever they operate," Mr Pope added.

Vietnamese migrants were transported in lorries from Europe into the UK

The court was told Le was jailed for seven-and-a-half years in prison during a hearing in February.

His co-accused Behsodi, a taxi driver from Kent, was given a two-year suspended jail term and 200 hours and community service, during the same hearing.

Behsodi had been involved in transporting the migrants in lorries, the court heard.

Nguyen is due to be sent back to the court on 30 November to be issued with a crime prevention order.