20-11-2023 (HANOI) Nguyen Mai Van, a 34-year-old Vietnamese man, has been sentenced to more than five years in England for his involvement in smuggling migrants into the UK. He was found guilty of playing a key role in facilitating the illegal migration of Vietnamese individuals, transporting them in the back of lorries.
Nguyen’s arrest came as a result of an investigation conducted by the National Crime Agency (NCA) in the UK. NCA Branch Commander Mick Pope expressed the gravity of the situation, stating, “Nguyen Mai Van was part of a criminal network that treated people as nothing more than a commodity, happily risking their lives by putting them in the back of lorries for long journeys. His conviction is the culmination of a painstaking investigation by the NCA, focusing on a gang bringing people into the UK illegally and then arranging for them to move into the illicit economy where again they would be exploited.”
Nguyen collaborated with Le Hai Xuan, a 34-year-old based in Birmingham, to organize at least six smuggling operations between August and September 2020. Le was previously convicted in December 2022 for his involvement in the network and was subsequently sentenced to seven and a half years in prison.
Nguyen’s role within the group was to receive the migrants upon their arrival, facilitate their movements to safe houses operated by the network in the West Midlands, and collect payments. It is believed that some of the smuggled individuals ended up being exploited in cannabis factories.
The NCA investigators managed to piece together Nguyen’s participation in the conspiracy through phone analysis and surveillance, which revealed his regular communication with other members of the gang during the period when the six smuggling attempts occurred.
Another individual involved in the operation was 42-year-old taxi driver Habib Behsodi from Chatham, Kent. Behsodi collaborated with Nguyen and Le to pick up migrants from lorries in the southeast of England and transport them to the West Midlands. Nguyen met with Behsodi on multiple occasions to facilitate payments to those involved in the transportation of the Vietnamese nationals. Behsodi was also convicted in December 2022 and received a two-year suspended sentence.
Following a three-week trial, a jury at Birmingham Crown Court delivered a guilty verdict against Nguyen on Friday, November 17th. He was sentenced to five and a half years in prison for conspiring to facilitate illegal immigration. The sentencing serves as a stern warning against those involved in human trafficking and highlights the commitment of law enforcement agencies to combat such criminal networks.
