Six men have been convicted as part of a criminal gang who forced trafficked migrants to work in cannabis farms across the country.
Illegal sites were run in the Midlands, London and the north of England, with properties being leased in other people’s identities using fake documents or aliases, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said.
An NCA investigation discovered convicted people smuggler Mai Van Nguyen, the ringleader of the gang, was involved in the operation.
The 35-year-old, of Beetham Tower, Birmingham, was working with fellow Vietnamese nationals Nghia Dinh Tran, 24, from Lewisham, London and Doung Dinh, 38, from St John’s Walk, Birmingham.
A seven-week trial at Birmingham Crown Court heard from one of the trafficking victims known as Witness Z, who was exploited by the gang after he arrived in the UK by boat in November 2020.
The NCA said he had travelled to the UK to pay off money he had borrowed to pay for his wife’s medical treatment, but was then forced to work for the traffickers as he was in a debt bondage with those who had transported him to the UK.
After being processed by immigration authorities, he was put to work in a cannabis operation near Tipton in the West Midlands, and later moved to other locations in Birmingham and Hartlepool.
The Teesside property was raided by Cleveland Police in June 2021 and Witness Z was arrested.
Officers found a note pinned to the bedroom door inside the house saying “take what you want, please don’t hit me, I do not know English” and a hand-written diary entry from the witness asking why he got beaten up and forced to work.
The NCA said the trial also heard how defendants Shamraiz Akhtar and Tasawar Hussain, both 50, of Nechells Park Road and Millward Street in Birmingham, were taxi drivers who would transport migrants, and sometimes cannabis and equipment, around the gang’s properties and be paid hundreds of pounds for each job.
The sixth member of the group, Amjad Nawaz, 43, of Blake Lane, Birmingham, also acted as a middleman and was in frequent communication with Nguyen about the operations.
The NCA said Nguyen and Tran pleaded guilty to conspiring to produce cannabis, which the others denied.
All six defendants denied accusations of trafficking for exploitation, but were found guilty of all charges on February 24.
NCA branch commander Kevin Broadhead said: “These men were responsible for the exploitation of a number of migrants who they moved around the UK and forced to work in cannabis farms.
“Not only were the migrants transported to the UK in incredibly dangerous ways in lorries or in boats, but they were then made to live in degrading conditions in order to pay off their debt bondage. We know some were also subjected to violence.
“But this gang didn’t care about that, they only saw the migrants as a way to make money.”
The men will be sentenced on July 4.