Landlords facing the risk of their properties becoming cannabis factories can now rest a little easier after six people were given long prison sentences for smuggling forced labour into the UK and 'large-scale' drugs production.
Mai Van Nguyen, 35, Duong Dinh, 38, Nghĩa Dinh Tran, 30, Shamraiz Akhtar, 54, Tasawar Hussain, 54, and Amjad Nawaz, 43, (main image) were found guilty of illegally bringing people into the UK to work in ‘exploitative conditions’ on cannabis farms.
The six were also found guilty at Birmingham Crown Court of conspiracy to produce cannabis between 1 June 2020 and 18 August 2022 and sentences ranging from 15 years to ten years were handed down.
All were brought to justice following a long and detailed investigation by the National Crime Agency supported by the Crown Prosecution Service.
It found that the six men had arranged for victims, people who had been smuggled illegally into the UK, to be trafficked to work in cannabis farms in various locations and kept in ‘modern slavery’ conditions including squalid living conditions and regular threats to their lives and those of their families back in Vietnam.
“This gang 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,” says National Crime Agency Branch Commander Kevin Broadhead.
“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.”
Privately rented homes are the most common properties used by cannabis farm operators with some 800 detected by police every year, and last year one landlord was caught being ‘in cahoots’ with criminals, a decision that led to an 11 year jail sentence.
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